An Unusually High Nest of Audubon's Hermit Thrush
An Unusually High Nest of Audubon's Hermit Thrush.
Mr. Belding's note in the March-April BULLETIN for 1899, on the nesting of the Audubon's Hermit Thrush (Turdus aonalaschka auduboni) in the Sierra Nevadas, brings to mind the only set of eggs of this bird I have seen. We were near the summit of the Sierras on the 6th of June, 1896, and while looking around in a grove of trees, I noticed a nest well out on a pine limb, thirty feet from the ground. On climbing the tree, the bird was seen upon the nest and flew off when closely approached. The nest is strongly built of twigs and bright yellow moss (Evernia vulpina), with a layer of fine dry leaves, within which is a heavy lining of fine grass stems. The nest contained four fresh eggs. The height from the ground seems unusual as compared with other records, but it was perhaps to get the benefit of the morning sun, as patches of snow lay all around and the nights were quite chilly. Several birds were heard or seen between 7,000 and 8,000 feet in El Dorado Co., and several heard singing in the Merced grove of Big Trees a couple of weeks later.
