Taken from the nest they are easily tamed, and are quite lively and playful; but their want of cleanliness renders them very undesirable pets. When their nest is visited they make no complaints, but retire to a distance. Not so, however, when their natural enemy, the hawk, appears; these they at once assail and seek to drive away, uttering loud and clear chirps, and peculiar twittering sounds. The nest of this thrush is always built on the ground, most generally either under low bushes or in the open ground, rarely, if ever, among thick trees, and for the most part in low swampy places. Both nest and eggs closely resemble those of Wilson’s Thrush (_T. fuscescens_). In Parsboro, Nova Scotia, I found one of the nests built in the very midst of the village, close to a dwelling, though on a spot so marshy as to be almost unapproachable. The nests are 3 inches in height and 5 in diameter, with a cavity 3¼ inches wide by 1¾ deep. They are composed of decayed deciduous leaves, remnants of dried plants, sedges and grasses, intermingled with twigs, and lined with finer grasses, sedges, and strips of bark. The eggs are of a uniform bluish-green color, and range in length from .88 to .94, with an average of .63 of an inch. Turdus pallasi, var. nanus, AUDUBON. DWARF HERMIT THRUSH. _Turdus nanus_, AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 201, pl. cci.—BAIRD, Birds N. A. 1858, 213; Rev. Am. B. 1864, 15.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859.—IB. Catal. 1861.—DALL & BANNISTER.—COOPER, Birds Cal., p. 4. _Turdus pallasi_, var. _nanus_, RIDGWAY, Rep. Kings Exped. V, 1872. _? Turdus aonalaschkæ_, GMELIN, S. N. I, 1788, 808. _?? Muscicapa guttata_, PALLAS, Zoög. Rosso-Asiat. II, 1811, 465. SP. CHAR. Above with the clear dark olive of _swainsoni_, but this even purer and more plumbeous. Upper tail-coverts (but not lower part of rump) becoming more rufous, the tail abruptly darker, richer, and more _purplish_-rufous, approaching to chestnut. The clear olive of the neck passes into brownish-_plumbeous_ along sides; pectoral spots more sparse and less pure black than in _T. pallasi_. The white beneath is of an almost snowy purity, appreciably different from the cottony-white of _T. pallasi_. Wing, 3.30; tail, 3.00; bill, .36; tarsus, 1.07. 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.