THE AUK: 



A (QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



VOL. XIV. January, 1897. pp./-^. no. i. 



NOTES ON A CAPTIVE HERMIT THRUSH. 



BY DANIEL E. OWEN. 



June 26, 1896, while exploring a small patch of mixed growth 

 in search of birds, I fell in with a young Hermit Thrush, accom- 

 panied by its parents. The young bird was just from the nest 

 and had such ill control of its faculties and muscles that, ulti- 

 mately, after a laborious flight of seven or eight yards, it alighted 

 at my very feet. I captured the youngster, by dropping my 

 hat over it, and having tied the bird, loosely, in my handker- 

 chief, carried it home in my collecting basket. For the next five 

 weeks, the Thrush was my constant study companion, and during 

 this period discovered so many attractive traits that when I came 

 to restore my captive to its native wood, the parting was, to one 

 of us, the occasion of real regret. 



I domiciled my little orphan in a large, old-fashioned canary 

 cage which was allowed to stand, most of the time, on the sill of 

 an open window. At first the Thrush objected to this durance 

 vile, expressing its distaste by ejaculatory ' peeps ' which, June 

 28, attracted to the roof, near the window, a sympathetic Chipping 

 Sparrow, and caused a Robin in a neighboring tree to sound 

 a loquacious and protracted alarm. But the imprisoned bird 



inserting the pieces of meat between the young bird's gaping 

 mandibles, I dipped them in water by way of lubrication, in order 

 that they, readily, might slip down the bird's throat. This was 

 the more necessary because the bird, often, would refuse to swal- 

 low unless the food had been placed far back in the mouth, at the 

 very entrance to the gullet. Moreover, it seemed well to supply 



Skipping the western types, our eastern Turdus '■^fallasi" 

 comes next. Nearly all the names of this shy and solitary bird 

 refer to its habit of haunting for the most part the undergrowth 

 of secluded and damp woods. Its small size and distinguishingly 

 reddish tail supply the rest. Following is the list : Hermit or 

 Solitary Thrush; Grive or Merle solitaire (Canada) ; Ground 

 Swamp Robin (Maine) ; Little Swamp Robin and Rufous- 

 tailed Thrush. Bull. N. 0.0, 8. ApU. 1883, p. 73- 



