44 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



In subsequent parts of this narrative I shall 

 have to tell something of the geographical distribu- 

 tion of North American birds, and I call attention 

 to these few short sentences as indicative of gen- 

 eralizations that will be developed. 



Just above Coalburg an island divided the river. 

 This island was heavily wooded, and there was a 

 very dense and tangled undergrowth — a great 

 resort for birds. At places along the river, though 

 the banks were generally high as well as abrupt 

 and steep, there were small beaches of shingle, and 

 here I made the acquaintance of the large-billed 

 water-thrush. When I first saw the water- thrushes 

 at some little distance, they seemed to be some 

 kind of sandpiper with which I was not acquainted. 

 There was the same tilting motion, the same rapid 

 running followed by a pause and tilt characteristic 

 of the whole group of sandpipers, and emphasized 

 in our fresh-water species. All the habits of these 

 water-thrushes impressed me as sandpiper-like ; 

 and here it may be well to call attention to a fact 

 that has always seemed to me of particular inter- 

 est in the group which we call song-birds. The 

 matter referred to is the reversion to ancestral 

 habits and methods of life among this kind of 

 perching birds. 



Though ornithologists disagree as to details, 

 some assigning one family and others another 

 as the highest in rank, they all agree that the 



