80 LAND-BIRDS. 



This last group is ranked as a subfamily, the others being 

 united by Dr. Coues as Sylvicolince, though Prof. Baird further 

 sets apart the Geothlypinoe. (For remarks on Icterince^ see 

 § 10.) The Warblers are, no doubt, to many persons the most 

 charming of our birds. They are eminently peaceful, and pret- 

 tily colored, brightly, sometimes brilliantly. Musically, how- 

 ever, they are generally surpassed by the Thrushes, Vireos, and 

 Finches. They are insectivorous, migratory, and in some cases 

 gregarious, except in summer. Among their nests are some 

 of the neatest and prettiest specimens of bird-architecture. 

 The eggs are, for the most part, four or jfive, white, spotted 

 with brown and lilac. 



I. SEIURUS. 



A. NOVEBORACENSis. Northern Water ''^ Thrush,'' Water 

 " Wagtail.''^ Common, perhaps locally so, during their mi- 

 grations through Massachusetts, where, however, a few breed.* 



a. 5|— 6 inches long. Dark brown above (tinged with 

 olive). Superciliary line and under parts, white tinged with 

 yellow. Throat and breast, thickly spotted with very dark 

 brown. " Feet, dark." 



h. The nest is usually built on or near the ground, in a 

 swamp or at least the neighborhood of water. The eggs of 

 each set are usually four, average .85 X .67 of an inch, though 

 variable in size, and in coloration closely resemble those of the 

 Golden-crowned " Thrush " ((7, 6).t A nest which I found 

 near Boston contained fresh eggs in the first week of June. 



c. The Water " Thrushes " are to be found in northern 

 New England as summer residents, but, though a very few 

 pass the summer in Massachusetts,^ they are common in this 



* A eommon summer resident bear only a general family resemblance, 



throughout most of northern New Eng- — W. B. 



land, but in Massachusetts and to the | It is not impossible that the North- 

 southward known only as a migrant of em Water Thrush occasionally breeds 

 very regular and abundant occurrence in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, — 

 in both spring and autumn. — W. B. where, indeed, a single specimen was 



t The eggs of the Northern Water found in summer, a few years since, by 

 Thrush are usually much more heavily Mr. Faxon, — but Mr. Minot's state- 

 marked than those of the Golden- ment, that he found a nest near Boston, 

 crowned Thrush, to which indeed they has been very generally discredited, 



