A very tangible and constant character possessed by this bird is the more slender and depressed bill, as compared with that of T. pallasi. Specimens vary only in intensity of colors; these variations very limited, and corresponding with those of T. pallasi. In all cases, however, their precise pattern and peculiar distribution is retained.
Hab. Western Province of North America, eastward from Kodiak to Cape St. Lucas. Arizona, Coues.
Habits. This small race of the Hermit Thrush was first noticed by Dr. Pickering, and described by Mr. Audubon from an imperfect skin. It has since been obtained abundantly on the Pacific slope, and Mr. Ridgway procured a specimen as far east as the East Humboldt Mountains, which he considers its eastern limit.
In its habits it is said to be, like T. pallasi, almost exclusively terrestrial. Dr. Heermann mentions finding it abundant in California, and breeding among the stunted oaks covering the sand-hills of San Francisco. Dr. Coues found it in Arizona, but speaks of it as rare and migratory, occurring chiefly in spring and autumn, and as a shy and retiring species. Dr. Cooper, in his Report on the Birds of California, describes it as shy and timid, preferring dark and shady thickets, feeding chiefly on the ground, running rapidly, and searching for insects among the leaves.
Near San Diego they began to sing about the 25th of April. The song, consisting of a few low ringing notes, resembles that of Wilson’s Thrush (T. fuscescens), and also that of T. ustulatus, but is not so loud. Their note of alarm is a loud and ringing chirp, repeated and answered by others at a long distance.
At Santa Cruz, on the first of June, Dr. Cooper met with several of their nests, which, though probably erroneously, he supposed to belong to the Dwarf Hermit Thrush. They were all built in thickets under the shade of cottonwood-trees. Each nest was about five feet from the ground, and all contained eggs, from two to four in number, in differing stages of incubation. The nests were built of dry leaves, roots, fibres, grasses, and bark, without any mud, and were lined with decayed leaves. Their height and external diameter measured 4 inches. The diameter of the cavity was 2½ inches and the depth 2¼. The eggs measured .90 by .70 of an inch. They are of a pale bluish-green, speckled with cinnamon-brown, chiefly at the larger end.
The nest, supposed to be of this species, supplied by Dr. Cooper, is large for the bird; constructed of a base loosely made up of mosses, lichens, and coarse fibres of plants. It is a strong and compact structure of matted leaves, put together when in a moist and decaying condition; with these there are interwoven roots, twigs, and strong fibres, surrounding the nest with a stout band and strengthening the rim. In fact, it corresponds so well—as do the eggs also—with those of T. ustulatus, that it is extremely probable that they really belong to that species. The only observable difference is the absence of the Hypnum mosses characteristic of northern ustulatus.
Dall and Bannister mention in their list of Alaska birds that the species is not common there. It was also taken at Sitka and Kodiak by Bischoff.
The fact that this thrush builds its nest above the ground, and lays spotted eggs, if verified, would at once warrant our giving it independent rank as a species, instead of considering it as a local race of pallasi.
Turdus auduboni, Baird, Rev. Am. Birds, 1864, 16.—Ridgway, P. A. N. S. 1869, 129.—Elliot, Illust. (fig.). Merula silens, Swainson, Philos. Mag. I, 1827, 369 (not Turdus silens of Vieillot, Encycl. Méth. II, 1823, 647, based on T. mustelinus, Wils. = T. fuscescens).—Ib. Fauna Bor.-Amer. II, 1831, 186.—Baird, Birds N. Amer. 1858, 213, and 922.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1858, 325 (La Parada), and 1859, 325 (Oaxaca).—Ib. Catal. Am. Birds, 1861, 2, No. 9.
Sp. Char. Colors much as in Turdus nanus, but the upper tail-coverts scarcely different from the back. Tail yellowish-rufous. Length of wing, 4.18; tail, 3.60; bill from nostril, .45; tarsus, 1.26.
Hab. Rocky Mountains, from Fort Bridger south into Mexico. Orizaba (Alpine regions), Sumichrast.
This is a very distinct race of thrushes, although it may be questioned whether it be truly a species. It is, however, sufficiently distinct from the eastern and western Hermit Thrushes to warrant our giving it a place of some kind in the systems.
The young plumage differs from that of pallasi as do the adults of the two, and in about the same way. The olive is very much purer, with a greenish instead of a brownish cast, and the tail is very much lighter, inclining to dull ochraceous instead of rufous; this yellowish instead of rufous cast is apparent on the wings also. The yellowish “drops” on head, back, etc., are very much narrower than in pallasi, while the greater coverts, instead of being distinctly tipped with yellowish, merely just perceptibly fade in color at tips.
Habits. At present we have but little knowledge of the habits of this form of T. pallasi, and no information whatever regarding its nesting or eggs.
In its distribution it is confined to the central range of mountains from Fort Bridger to Southern Mexico. This species, there known as “Solitario,” is common in the Alpine region of Vera Cruz (as well as in all the elevated regions of Central Mexico), frequenting the pine woods in the district of Orizaba. Mr. Sumichrast obtained it at all seasons of the year at Moyoapam, in that vicinity; a locality the height of which approximates 2,500 metres. It is also found at a height of 1,200 metres, near the city of Orizaba.
Mr. Ridgway calls this bird the “Rocky Mountain Hermit Thrush.” He states that he found it common in the Wahsatch Mountains, but that, on account of its retiring habits, it was seldom seen. It there lives chiefly in the deep ravines in the pine region, exhibiting an attachment to these solitudes rather than to the thickets along the watercourses lower down; the latter it leaves to the T. swainsoni. Owing to the reserved manners of this bird, as well as to the great difficulty of reaching its abode, there were few opportunities presented for learning much concerning its habits, nor did he hear its song. In its flight the pale ochraceous band across the bases of its quills was a very conspicuous feature in the appearance of its species, leading Mr. Ridgway to mistake it at first for the Myiadestes townsendii,—also an inhabitant of the same localities,—so much did it look like that bird, which it further resembled in its noiseless, gliding flight.
Turdus iliacus.
1718
Of Turdus, in its most restricted sense, we have no purely American representatives, although it belongs to the fauna of the New World in consequence of one species occurring in Greenland, that meeting-ground of the birds of America and Europe; which, however, we include in the present work, as related much more closely to the former.
This Greenland species, Turdus iliacus, is closely related to T. viscivorus, the type of the genus, and comes much closer to the American Robins (Planesticus) than to the Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla).
Turdus iliacus, Linn. Syst. Nat. 10th ed. 1758, 168, and of European authors.—Reinhardt, Ibis, 1861, 6 (Greenland). Baird, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 23 (Greenland).
Sp. Char. This species is smaller than our Robin (T. migratorius), but of a similar grayish-olive above, including the head. The under parts are white; the feathers of the lower throat and breast streaked with brown. The sides, axillars, and inner wing-covert are reddish-cinnamon. A conspicuous white streak over the eye and extending as far back as the nape. Bill black, yellow at base of lower jaw. Legs pale-colored. Second quill longer than fifth. Length, about 8.25; wing, 4.64; tail, 3.45; bill, from gape, 1.07; from nostril, .44; tarsus, 1.16; middle toe and claw, 1.15. Specimen described: 18,718, ♂, a British specimen received from the