6 



22nd December, 1825. According to Degland and Gerbe (Orn. Eur. i. p. 427) one, now in the 

 Strassburg Museum, was obtained in Switzerland : a third example is stated by Mr. Gatke 

 (Vogelw. Helgol. p. 253), on the authority of Reymers, to have been obtained in Heligoland in 

 October 1836 ; but the bird was not procured by him, and the authenticity of this occurrence 

 depends on the accuracy of his recollection. According to Thienemann one is said to have been 

 obtained near Vienna in 1846, but this occurrence is also very doubtful. 



In America the range of this Thrush is much more restricted than that of Turdus swainsoni, 

 for though it passes the summer in high Arctic localities, it does not appear to range during the 

 winter further south than the Southern United States, not even reaching Mexico, and, according 

 to Gundlach, it does not visit Cuba. Florida appears to be its favourite winter-quarters, and it is 

 said to be common there during the cold season. It arrives at its summer-quarters, which are in 

 the northern portions of New England, and from there up into the Arctic Regions, in April and 

 leaves again in September. During the two summers I passed in New Brunswick I found this 

 Thrush very common, and procured many specimens. I usually found it frequenting the alder- 

 swamps and damp places near the streams and lakes where there were low bushes, occasionally 

 near the settlements, but never in the forest amongst high trees. It arrived late in April, and 

 commenced nidification very soon after its arrival. 



Its nest was usually placed in an alder-swamp on the ground, and is constructed of old 

 leaves, grasses, and twigs, and lined with finer grass, bents, and sedges ; and its eggs, four or five 

 in number, ai - e uniform dark bluish green, unspotted, and measure, on an average, - 9 by - 7 inch. 



As a rule, I did not find it shy or very difficult of approach, and it is well known to the 

 lumbermen under the name of Swamp-Robin. Its song is clear and sweet, with a bell-like 

 sound, though not very powerful. It was certainly the sweetest songster we had in New 

 Brunswick, and I have often sat for long on the edge of an alder-swamp, far away from any 

 habitation, except a lumberman's camp, listening with delight to its sweet refrain. Dr. Coues 

 writes (B. of Color. Valley, p. 33), "Great injustice would be done were the Hermit's musical 

 powers overlooked in any sketch, however slight, of its life-history. The earlier authors were 

 evidently unaware of its accomplishments, for its melody is lavished on the gloom of the swamp, 

 or lost in the darkening aisles of the forest, where years passed by before the ear of the patient 

 and toiling student of nature was gladdened by the sweet refrain. Wilson denies its song ; 

 Audubon speaks of its ' single plaintive note,' though he adds, perhaps upon information 

 received from his friend Dr. Pickering, that ' its song is sometimes agreeable.' Nuttall seems 

 to have first recognized the power and sweetness of the lay of our Hermit ; he compares it to 

 the famous Nightingale, that sweet princess of song, and ranks it far above the Wood-Thrush. 

 Later writers agree in this high estimate of the bird's powers, though it may be questioned 

 whether a comparison unfavourable to the Wood-Thrush is a perfectly just discrimination. The 

 weird associations of the spot where the Hermit triumphs, the mystery inseparable from the 

 voice of an unseen musician, conspire to heighten the effect of the sweet, silvery, bell-like notes, 

 which, beginning soft, low, and tinkling, rise higher and higher, to end abruptly with a clear 

 ringing intonation. It is the reverse of the lay of the Wood-Thrush, which swells at once into 

 powerful and sustained effort, then gradually dies away, as though the bird were receding from 

 us ; for the song of the Hermit first steals upon us from afar, then seems to draw nearer, as if 



