348 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
In the Middle States this species is only seen for a 
few weeks in the spring and fall. They arrive in this 
part of New England about the 10th of April, and dis- 
perse to pass the summer in the seclusion of the forest. 
They are often seen on the ground in quest of their food, 
and frequent low and thick copses, into which they com- 
monly fly for concealment when too attentively observed ; 
though when in small companies, in the spring season, 
they do not appear very shy, but restless, from the 
unsettled state of their circumstances. When dispersed, 
they utter alow, chirping call, and for some time continue 
to frequent the same secluded part of the forest in soci- 
ety. At times, like the Wagtail, they keep this part of 
their body in a slow, vertical motion. In manners it 
strongly resembles the following species ; but its song 
seems to be unusually lively and varied, warbling almost 
like the Yellow Bird, and then chanting like the Robin, 
In Lower Louisiana, they are said to raise two broods in 
the season. 
The length of the Hermit Thrush is about 7J inches ; alar extent 10 j. 
Above, plain deep olive-brown. Below, dull white ; upper part of the 
breast and throat of a delicate cream color, inclining to nankeen ; the 
dusky brown pencillated spots carried over the breast and under the 
wings where the sides are pale olive ; Sd primary longest, inner webs 
inclining to dusky, the outer nearly as rufous as the tail ; on the inner 
webs of the secondaries a large oval spot of bright nankeen color. 
Tail and coverts, as well as the wings, strongly tinged with rufous. 
Legs pale flesh-color, the tarsus very long. Bill black above the 
lower mandible, flesh-colored below. Iris nearly black, and large. — 
The female darker, and with the spots on the breast larger and more 
dusky. 
Note. The Brown Thrush of Pennant and Latham agrees pretty 
n-early with the Hermit Thrush (T. solitarius ) of Wilson, and dif- 
fers, in several important particulars, with the bird of this article. 
The bird of Wilson’s figure, if correctly done, I have never seen 
in Massachusetts. 
