Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE SONG BIRDS
THE THRUSHES
Hermit Thrush
Sharing the northern summer home with the last is the prince of all these Thrushes, the exquisite Hermit (H. guttata pallasii), so named from its pronounced preference for the quiet depths of the forest. Coming early in spring,—the earliest of the Thrushes,—they tarry latest in the fall, frequenting while en route the low, damp, bushy edges of woods, the dense shrubbery along streams, and occasionally they may enter gardens about houses. It spends some time on the ground, but is usually to be seen flitting from branch to branch. Of its song Coues says: “The weird associations of the spot where the Hermit triumphs, the mystery inseparable from the voice of an unseen musician, conspire to heighten the effect of the sweet, silvery, bell-like notes, which, beginning soft, low, and tinkling, rise higher and higher, to end abruptly with a clear, ringing intonation.”The nest of grass, leaves, and moss is placed on the ground, and the eggs are the usual greenish blue. The Hermit Thrush may be known from the others by its olive-brown upper parts and pale rufous tail, as also its near relatives, the Alaska, Dwarf, and Audubon's Hermit Thrushes (H. guttata, H. g. nana, and H. g. auduboni), which together range quite across the continent.
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