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Mr. Nehrling gives the following notes on the species :—“ The highly interesting Hermit. 
Thrush might be called the * May Blossom’ of our birds. Its charms are manifold, but the 
enthusiastic observer and lover of birds is rarely able to penetrate the solitude of its swampy northern 
woodland home. In the Eastern States the Hermit is one of the best known and most common of 
our Thrushes, at least occasionally in spring and autumn. Usually it is confounded with the 
similar but somewhat larger Olive-backed Thrush, from which it may be distinguished at the 
very first glance by its reddish-brown tail. Оп this account the bird is sometimes called the 
Rufous-tailed 'Thrush. It further differs from the Olive-back, by appearing in spring fully 
two weeks sooner and returning two or even three weeks later in the fall. Being restricted to 
the Canadian fauna it nests only in the Northern and in the high mountain woods of the 
the Eastern States, but it is abundant in many parts of the Middle States during migration. 
The Southern States are its winter-quarters. І have observed the Hermit every year in small 
companies or in pairs in Illinois from about the beginning to the middle of October and in 
Southern Missouri towards the end of the same month. At this time they fearlessly and 
unsuspectingly enter gardens close to dwellings and look for insects on the ground and among 
the fallen leaves. I found them most common along the bushy, low, and damp edges of woods, 
which are at this time the favourite resort of a great number of different birds bound for the 
south or north. Finches—especially Fox-coloured Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, White- 
throated Sparrows, Slate-colored Juncos, and others—are the constant companions of the Hermit. 
In spring it is the first of all the smaller Thrushes to return from its winter-quarters. Even 
in the beginning of April І һауе seen these birds on their way to their northern breeding haunts. 
'They often tarry from one to two weeks before deciding to continue their journey. 
* During its stay in spring it will return daily with great regularity to the same clump 
of trees or thickets, and to the same garden. In the neighbourhood of Houston, Texas, and 
thence westward to Austin, it is one of the most common winter visitors. It keeps in the 
dense shrubbery that borders the bayous, rivers, creeks, and branches, along the margins of the 
bottom woods and in the neighbourhood of fields, but always where it has as companions, besides 
the birds above mentioned, hundreds of Cardinals, Towhees, Thrashers, Yellow-breasted Chats, 
Carolina Wrens, Myrtle Birds, and many others. Here, too, the Hermit seeks the greater part 
of its food on the ground, though it eats many berries, especially those of the holly and Mexican 
mulberry. On entering, some time between November and March, their sheltered haunts, overgrown 
mostly with evergreen trees and shrubs, such as the magnificent magnolias, hollies, cherry-laurels, 
wax myrtles, red bay, loblolly bay, and many deciduous trees, a whole host of the most varied 
species of birds rises from the ground to settle on the trees and bushes. АП remain perfectly 
silent; only the Hermit utters a soft ‘chuck.’ While residing in my simple cabin in the woods 
near the Yegua Creek, in Texas, I had the best of opportunities during the whole winter to 
observe these Thrushes in my immediate neighbourhood. Though there were hundreds of them 
in the thickets near the creek, I never saw more than from six to ten individuals together, and 
these were usually scattered over a considerable portion of the woods. At the warning note 
‘of one of these Thrushes not only all other Hermits but even the swarms of Finches and other birds 
rapidly disappeared in the nearest tangled thickets. І never heard the song during their winter 
stay or during migration. Towards the end of February and the beginning of March they begin 
to leave South-eastern Texas, and by the middle of the latter month the last stragglers seem to 
have departed for the north." 
Mr. John Burroughs, in his little book * Wake-Robin, gives a very beautiful description of 
the song of the Hermit-Thrush. Не observed this bird especially in the Adirondac Mountains. 
The description shows what an eye and ear he has for everything beautiful in паше: « Ever 
