STLYICOLID.E — TUE WARBLERS. 



287 



is impossible to walk up to them. I almost always find them on some 

 island, in a i'i\'er, that has been o\-erHo\ved, and always Aery near the water." 

 Their eggs vary in length from .81 to .87 of an inch, and in breadth from 

 .65 to .69. They have an oblong-oval shape, tapering to a point at one end 

 and rounded at the otlier. Tlieir ground is a clear crystal-white, and they are 

 more or less marked with lines, dots, antl daslies of varying shades of umber- 

 brown. These markings are more numerous around the larger end, and are 

 much larger and bolder in some than in others, in many being mere points 

 and fine dots, and in such cases equally distributed over the whole egg. In 

 otliers a ring of large confluent blotches is grouped around the larger end, 

 leaviii'j- the rest of the e<ig nearlv unmarked. 



Seiurus ludovicianus, Boxap. 



LOUISIANA WATER THRUSH. 



Tardus ludovicimms, .\UD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 99, pi. xix. Seiurus ludovicianus, BoN. — 

 B.AIKD, Birds N. Am. 1S58, 262, pi. Ixxx, fig. 2 ; Rev. 217. — ScL.\TEii, P. Z. S. 1859, 

 363 (Xalapa) ; 373 (Oaxaca) ; 1861, 70 (Jamaica). — ScLATEE & SalviN; Ibis, 1860, 

 273 (Guatemala). — Samuels, 579. Hmicocichla lud. Sclater, Catal. 1861, 25, no. 

 161 (Orizaba). .? Turdus motacilla, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 9, pi. Ixv (Ken- 

 tucky). Seiurus motacilla, BoN. 1850. Henicocichla mot. Cab. Jour. 1857, 240 (Cuba). 

 ^GuNDLACH, Jour. Oru. 1861, 326. Henicocichla major. Cab. Mus. Hein. 1850 

 (Xalapa). 



Sp. Char. Bill longer than the .skull. Upper parts olive-brown with a shade of green- 

 ish. A conspicuous white superciliary line from the bill to the nape, involving the upper 

 litl, with a brown one from the bill through the eye, widening behind. Under parts white, 

 with a very faint shade of pale buff behind, especially on the tail-coverts. A dusky max- 

 illary line; the forepart of breast and sides of body with arrow-shaped streaks of the 

 same color. Chin, throat, belly, and under tail-coverts, entirely immaculate. Length, 6.33; 

 wing, 3.25 ; tail, 2.40 ; bill, from rictus, .75. Sexes similar. Young not seen. 



Hab. Ea.stern Province of United States as for north as Carlisle, Penn., and Michigan; 

 Cuba and Jamaica ; Southern Mexico (Colima) to Guatemala. 



novtboraccmis. 

 Nutt. 



Autunuial specimens have a more or less strong wash of ochraceous over 

 the flanks and crissum, and the brown aliove 

 rather darker and less grayish tlian in spring 

 birds. 



This species is very similar to ^S*. twvrho- 

 raccnms, although readily distinguishable by 

 tlie characters given in the diagnoses. The 

 differences in the bill there referred to are 

 illustrated in the accompanying diagram. 



Habits. The Water Tlirush described by Wilson as most abundant in 

 the lower part of tlie jMississippi Valley, as well as that given by Audubon 

 as tlie Louisiana Water Tlirush, though its position as a genuine species was 

 afterwards abandoned, are undoubtedly referable to a closely allied but ap- 



Siiurus ludovicianus. 

 Bo nap. 



^^ 



