Feb., 1903.] 
A Hermit Thrush Song. 
3 7 1 
beginning to appear while the third leaf would have the normal 
form of the mature plant. On this account I regard this as a 
case of atavism rather than an ordinary mutation ; or it is prob- 
able that the watermelon embryo, in passing from entire to lobed 
leaves, is repeating some of the past stages in the history of its 
race. Striking variations, mutations and reversions should be 
carefully studied and recorded, since it is by them alone that 
many of the problems of evolution can be solved. 
A HERMIT THRUSH SONG. 
Theodore Clarke Smith. 
During the summer of 1902 I stayed from the twenty-fourth of 
June to the thirtieth of July at a camp on the shore of Lake 
Memphremagog. My tent was placed at the edge of a cedar and 
hemlock grove, mixed with occasional maples and birches which 
furnished nesting places for a great variety of birds. The most 
conspicuous singer was a hermit thrush whose nest was not far 
from the tent and whose song was heard every morning and eve- 
ning and frequently during the day for over a month. Others of 
his kind were also audible, sometimes close at hand, but none 
became so thoroughly familiar as this “camp thrush.’’ I have 
heard him at extremely close range, on one occasion from less 
than ten feet, and have also been able to distinguish his song, 
over the lake, from a distance of fully three-quarters of a mile. 
From an abundance of material the following notes are contrib- 
uted in the effort to analyze his vocal performance : 
In form the song of this thrush was very distinct, clear-cut and 
regtdar. His typical phrase was as here 
shown. This same form was repeated by 
the bird in higher keys, usually some- 
what simplified by the omission of one or 
more of the latter notes until at the top of 
the bird’s register it become reduced to 
little more than the following. The closer one approached the 
thrush the greater appeared 
the regularity, as long, that 
is, as the bird was in full 
song, for when beginning or 
when singing softly he depart- 
ed noticeably from his ordin- 
ary practice. 
On several occasions the 
bird sang near the camp cabin in which there was a piano, and it 
was a simple matter, owing to the regularity of the song, to deter- 
