180 WAKE-ROBIN 



flight. But as I was at that moment gunless and 

 remained stationary, he presently jumped down and 

 walked away. 



A seeker of birds, and ever on the alert for 

 some new acquaintance, my attention was arrested, 

 on first entering the swamp, by a bright, lively 

 song, or warble, that issued from the branches over- 

 head, and that was entirely new to me, though 

 there was something in the tone of it that told me 

 the bird was related to the wood- wagtail and to the 

 water-wagtail or thrush. The strain was emphatic 

 and quite loud, like the canary's, but very brief. 

 The bird kept itself well secreted in the upper 

 branches of the trees, and for a long time eluded my 

 eye. I passed to and fro several times, and it 

 seemed to break out afresh as I approached a cer- 

 tain little bend in the creek, and to cease after I 

 had got beyond it; no doubt its nest was somewhere 

 in the vicinity. After some delay the bird was 

 sighted and brought down. It proved to be the 

 small, or northern, water- thrush (called also the New 

 York water-thrush), — a new bird to me. In size it 

 was noticeably smaller than the large, or Louisiana, 

 water-thrush, as described by Audubon, but in other 

 respects its general appearance was the same. It 

 was a great treat to me, and again I felt myself in 

 luck. 



This bird was unknown to the older ornitholo- 

 gists, and is but poorly described by the new. It 

 builds a mossy nest on the ground, or under the 

 edge of a decayed log. A correspondent writes me 



