HERMIT THRUSH. 391 - 
like that of'a young, stray chicken. Along the Atlantic coast, in New 
Jersey, they remain longer and later, as 1 have observed them there 
late in November. In the cane swamps of the Chactaw nation, they 
were frequent in the month of May, on the 12th of which I examined 
one of their nests on a horizontal branch, immediately over the path. 
The female was sitting, and left it with great reluctance, so that I had 
nearly laid my hand on her before she flew. The nest was fixed on 
the upper part of the body of the branch, and constructed with great 
neatness ; but without mud or plaster, contrary to the custom of the 
Wood Thrush. The outside was composed of a considerable quantity 
of coarse, rooty grass, intermixed with horse-hair, and lined with a 
fine, green. colored, thread-like grass, perfectly dry, laid circularly, 
with particular neatness. The eggs were four, of a pale, greenish 
blue, marked with spécks and blotches of olive,particularly at the 
eat end. I also observed this bird on the banks of the Cumberland 
iver, in April. Its food consists chiefly of berries, of which these 
low swamps furnish a perpetual abundance, such as those of the holly, 
myrtle, gall bush, (a species of vacciniuwm,) yapon shrub, and many 
others, : 
A superficial observer would instantly pronounce this to be only a 
variety of the Wood Thrush ; but, taking into consideration its differ- 
ence of size, color, manners, want of song, secluded habits, differently- 
formed nest, and spotted eggs, all unlike those of the former, with 
which it never associates, it is impossible not to conclude it to be a 
distinct and separate species, however near it may approach to that of 
the former. Its food, and the country it inhabits, for half the year, 
being the same, neither could have produced those differences ; and 
we must believe it to be now, what it ever has been, and ever will be, 
a distinct connecting link in the great chain of this part of animated 
nature ; all the sublime reasoning of certain theoretical closet philoso- 
. phers to the contrary notwithstanding. 
. Length of the Hermit Thrush, seven inches ; extent, ten inches and 
a half; upper parts, plain deep olive brown; lower, dull white; upper 
part of the breast and throat, dull cream color, deepest where the 
plumage falls over the shoulders of the wing, and marked with large. 
dark brown pointed spots; ear-feathers, and line over the eye, cream, 
the former mottled with olive; edges of the wings, lighter; tips, 
dusky ; tail-coverts and tail, inclining to a’ reddish fox color. In the 
Wood Thrush, these parts incline to greenish olive. Tail, slightly 
forked; legs, dusky ; bill, black above and at the tip, whitish below; 
iris, black, and very full; chin, whitish. 
The female differs very little, — chiefly in being generally darker in 
the tints, and having the spots on the breast larger and more dusky. . 
