BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 541 
to be quite abundant in New Jersey during the summer 
(vide Birds of America, Vol. 11, p. 30), but I cannot en- 
dorse this statement altogether; but there may have taken 
place a change since he wrote in the movements of this bird, 
especially as he gives the northern mountainous portions of 
Pennsylvania as the southernmost limit of the breeding local- 
ity of the Turdus fuscescens, which is now common to New 
Jersey. The “Hermit,” as the writer has met with it, is about 
as one to eight in the numbers that breed here, comparing it 
with Thrghis fuscescens; and as one to twenty, compared 
with the whole number of Turdus Pallasii that arrive here 
in May. They disappear from general observation about 
June 1st,'and as Audubon has written "throwing itself into 
the depths of the forests, there spends the summer montlis, 
frequenting the lowest and most shady thickets." During 
the latter part of the month of August last, the writer heard 
one of these birds singing, for the first and only time. The 
song excelled that of Turdus mustelinus. Its usual note is 
a shrill chirp, not as frequently repeated as that of Turdus 
Suscescens or Swainsonit. They were last seen in Trenton, 
New Jersey, on the 20th of November. 
* The Olive-backed Thrush (Zurdus Swainsonii) which was 
formerly more abundant than of late years, makes its ap- 
pearance in May, with the two preceding species, and re- 
sembles them in all its habits. It is unquestionably the least 
abundant of the three, either as a migratory or resident bird. 
During the summer of 1866 (vide Geology of New Jersey, 
p. 768) the three species of Thrushes were unusually abun- 
dant; and during the summer, many Olive-backed Thrushes 
remained and bred. During the past ten years they have 
remained as compared with those of their numbers that went 
North, about as one to fifty. Certainly the proportion re- 
maining is not less. 
The habits of these Thrushes suggest the probability that 
changes in the climate must be taking place in the northern- 
most limit of their range, and to preserve an equal extent of 
