LOUISIANA WATER-THRUSH 107 



Louisiana Water-thrush. Seiiirus motacilla 



6.28 



Ad. — Upper parts grayish-brown; line over the eye pure white; 

 under parts white, tinged in strong light with buffy; throat un- 

 spotted ; breast and flanks streaked with black. 



Nest, placed under the bank of a stream or under the roots of 

 an overturned tree. Eggs, white, spotted with reddish-brown. 



The Louisiana Water-thrush is a summer resident of 

 Berkshire County, Mass., of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and 

 the lower Hudson Valley. It is rare in Berkshire County, 

 local in Rhode Island and northern Connecticut, but fairly 

 common in southern Connecticut and along the Hudson ; 

 it even penetrates the Catskills, following the mountain 

 streams. It arrives in the middle of April, often a fort- 

 night before the northern species, and leaves before Sep- 

 tember. Though it does to some extent frequent swampy 

 woods and sluggish woodland streams, as at Englewood, 

 K. J., yet its favorite haunts are clear mountain brooks, 

 where it trips over the stones, or utters its wild ringing 

 song from the branches of the overhanging trees. Like 

 its relative, it has a habit of wagging the tail as it 

 walks. 



During May, both the northern and the southern species 

 occur in southern New England and the Hudson Valley. 

 The southern species may then be distinguished by the 

 pure ivhite line over the eye and by the luisj^otted throat. 

 Its song, generally described as wilder than that of the north- 

 ern species, and the call-note, may both be distinguished by 

 a practiced ear, but a beginner must depend for identifica- 

 tion either on the time of year, or on the Avhite line over the 

 eye and the unspotted throat. A Water-thrush seen in 

 southern New England or New York between the tenth of 

 June and the first of August will, almost undoubtedly, be 

 the southern species. (See following species.) 



