572 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
September 13, 1883, near Willis (Henshaw); but it is probable that many individuals 
do not leave the State until October, or even later.—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —In bushes or low trees usually in pine or spruce, but also in oak saplings, 
3 to 10 feet from the ground; bulky, made almost wholly of bark and coarse grasses, 
outside covered with moss. Eggs: 4 or 5, light greenish blue, normally unspotted. 
Food. —Vegetable 35.49 per cent, composed largely of wild or waste fruit, 
including pokeberry, service berry, holly, black alder, woodbine, elderberries, and 
mistletoe, and seeds of poison oak and weeds. Animal, 64.51 per cent, including 
ants, caterpillars, harmful beetles, among them many weevils; other insects and 
some spiders. “The Hermit Thrush destroys nothing indirectly helpful to man, as 
beneficial insects, but aids in the destruction of the myriad hosts of insect life which 
at all times threaten vegetation” (Beal). 
General Habits. —The Hermit Thrushes of whatever form may be 
recognized by the warm reddish brown of their tails in contrast to the 
brown of the back, together with their habit of slowly raising and 
lowering their tails and giving a low chuck , a habit that is helpfully 
directive in the dark forest. For, true to their name, the shy, solitary 
Hermits are found in the seclusion of dense forests. In the Capitan 
Mountains, Mr. Gaut found them in deep, dark canyons. In the 
higher Zuni Mountains, Major Goldman found them common, their 
beautiful song being frequently heard early in the morning and occa¬ 
sionally throughout the day. In the heavily forested amphitheater of 
Wheeler Peak, we found them singing and feeding young. 
And at 11,000 feet, on Jack Creek below Pecos Baldy, we found 
them so surprisingly abundant in the dense spruce and fir forest that 
we named our camp Hylocichla Camp. From the woods above, 
below, and around us came their beautiful songs, the first heard in the 
morning and the last at night. At sfinset, as we walked through the 
cool, still, spruce woods, its pale beards lit by the last slanting rays, 
involuntarily treading lightly to make no sound, from unseen choristers 
a serene uplifted chant arose, growing till it seemed to fill the remote 
aisles of the forest. Sometimes a silvery voice would come from the 
open edge of the dark forest, where the singer looked far down the 
mountainside and out over the wide mesa-clad plains—a wide view, 
the beauty and sweep of which seemed in rare harmony with his 
untroubled spirit. 
Additional Literature.—Miller, O. T., Little Brothers of the Air, 259-267, 
1892. 
DWARF HERMIT THRUSH: Hylocichla guttata nanus (Audubon) 
Description. — Wing: 3.2 inches, tail 2.7, bill .5, tarsus 1.1. Like N. g. guttata 
but coloration darker and browner, anterior upperparts more sepia brown, upper 
tail coverts more russet, tail more chestnut, and spots on chest larger and darker. 
Range. —Breeds in Canadian and Transition Zones from Cross Sound, Alaska, 
south to coast region of southern British Columbia; winters south to California, 
Arizona, and New Mexico. 
