Summer Birds of the Pennsylvania 

 Alleghiiiies. J. D-wight.Jr. 



Turdus aonalaschkae pallasii. Hermit Thrush.— Among some scat- 

 tered pines at the top of Wopsononock Mountain I found a pair feeding 

 their joung. As the abundance of this species can best be determined 

 about sunset, when every male is pouring forth its evening song (and the 

 same remark applies to T. u. sivatnsonit) , I cannot say how abundant it 

 is at this point. It was not encountered at Cresson, but in the deep 

 woods of North Mountain it found a congenial home and was very numer- 

 ous. Often it was possible to distinguish a dozen singing at the same 

 time in the early morning or late evening hours. There was an overhang- 

 ing cliff commanding a deep, narrow valley, whence at sunset even a 

 greater number might be heard, their notes blending with those of the 

 Olive-baeked and Wood Thrushes. I have listened to the songs of all 

 these birds many times, but never before have I heard all these species 

 singing at the same time and had such opportunities for comparing their 

 notes. I am satisfied that the song of the Hermit Thrush is more beau- 

 tiful than that of the much-renowned Wood Thrush. There isa liquid, 

 ringing sweetness about it, that is only matched in part by the song of 

 the latter. The notes of the Olive-backed Thrush are inferior to both, 

 although delivered with more swing and emphasis than either. The 

 Hermit Thrush is one of the characteristic Canadian birds found in this 

 region. Baird did not meet with it in summer. Dr. Warren says : "This 

 species, it is stated, breeds sparingly irf-some of our higher mountainous 

 districts." Auk. 9, April. 1899. p. /V/. _ 



General Notes. 

 Mountaina.Penn. Witmer Stone. 



Turdus aonalaschkK pallasii.— One specimen secured. The elevation 

 and location of the Pocono plateau is such as to warrant a fauna quite as 

 boreal as that found at Harveys Lake and North Mt.,' but the virgin forest 

 has been entirely cleared away in the vicinity of Mt. Pocono and with it 

 have disappeared the northern species of birds, a few only remaining in 

 the deep ravines where they still find a congenial home in the rhododen- 

 dron thickets, and the scant growth of hemlocks which escaped the lum- 

 berman's axe. 



That the fauna of the Poconos was once quite as rich in boreal forms as 

 the northern Alleghanies is shown by the fact that a few miles beyond 

 Tolyhanna Mills (northwest of Mt. Pocono), where there still remains a 

 portion of the virgin hemlock forest, my friend, Mr. Stewardson Brown, 

 found (July 24, 1893) the Junco and Winter Wren in addition to the species 

 above mentioned. Mr. Brown also observed a large flock of Red Crossbills 

 at Tolyhanna, and in a clearing near the hemlock tract, he is positive he 

 heard several White-throated Sparrows singing. As Mr. Brown is 

 thoroughly acquainted with this bird he could hardly have been mistaken, 

 but it is unfortunate that he was unable to secure a specimen, as this is, 

 so far as I am aware, the first record of the occurrence of this species in 

 Pennsylvania in tlie breeding season.— Witmer Stone, Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pa. 



1 See Stone, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1891, p. 431, and Dwight, Auk, 1892, p. 129. 



Auk XI. April. 18©4 Pi 182 



i-i]j'.^iids, Wasi'sin.;: ■ oil *ud 

 British Columbia Birds. 



Turdus aonalaschkae pallasii. Hermit Thrush. — The presence of 

 this species breeding in the region around Lake La Uache, B. C, as 

 attested by four skins in the collection, further complicates the relation- 

 ships of this genus in the Northwest. Neither aiiduboni nor pallasii 

 was found in any other part of British Columbia. I found aonalaschkm 

 breeding in the Rocky Mountains at Field. It is doubtful if aiiduboni 

 reaches the forty-ninth pai allel. If, as seems probable, it be found that/a/- 

 and aoiialaschlfce breed indifferently across common ground in the 

 central and Rocky Mountain regions of British Columbia, withoutthe inter- 

 vention of intergrades, a more definite separation of the two is necessitated. 

 Owing to the limited series obtained in evidence of this, a satisfactory con- 

 clusion cannot now be reached. Two points at least are established; first 

 the breeding of aonalaschkce in the Rocky Mountains; second, the breed- 

 ing of pallasii west of the Rockies and south of the fifty-second parallel. 



Auk X, Jan, 1893. p.2^f- 



