494 BULLETIN 2 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and swamps, living there in company with the Prothonotary Warbler." 

 And in Knox County, Ind., William Brewster (1878) found it breed- 

 ing on "the edge of a lonely forest pool in the depth of a cypress 

 swamp." Although this species apparently shows a preference for the 

 vicinity of running water, it seems content to live in surroundings 

 where such streams are not to be found; however, the presence of 

 water seems to be a decided necessity, hence it deserves its name. 



Richard C. Harlow tells me that, "in the Pocono Mountains of Penn- 

 sylvania, where the northern waterthrush is very common and the 

 Louisiana a common breeder, the normal nesting habitat of the 

 northern species is in rhododendron bogs amid damp surroundings, 

 but where water is slow-moving or stagnant, and where upturned roots 

 of fallen, moss-covered trees abound. The Louisiana is here normally 

 a bird of the fast-flowing trout streams, nesting in the banks or gullies 

 near by. Both species may nest in overlapping zones, but they are 

 much more frequent in the respective habitats indicated above." 



Nesting. — One of the earliest, and one of the best, accounts of the 

 nesting of the Louisiana waterthrush is by Mr. Brewster (1878) ; in 

 Ejiox County, Ind. — 



a large tree had fallen into the shallow water, and the earth adhering to the 

 roots formed a nearly vertical but somewhat irregular wall about six feet in 

 height and ten or twelve in breadth. Near the upper edge of this, in a cavity 

 among the finer roots, was placed the nest, which, but for the situation and the 

 peculiar character of its composition, would have been exceedingly conspicu- 

 ous. ♦ * * The nest, which is before me, is exceedingly large and bulky, 

 measuring externally 3.50 inches in diameter, by 8 inches in length, and 3.50 

 inches in depth. Its outer wall, a solid mass of soggy dead leaves plastered 

 tightly together by the mud adhering to their surfaces, I'ises in the form of a 

 rounded parapet, the outer edge of which was nicely graduated to conform to the 

 edge of the earthy bank in which it was placed. In one corner of this mass, and 

 well back, is the nest proper, a neatly rounded, cup-shaped hollow, measuring 

 2.50 inches in diameter by 2.50 inches in depth. This inner nest is composed of 

 small twigs and green mosses, with a lining of dry grasses and a few hairs of 

 squirrels or other mammals arranged circularly, 



A second nest was found 2 days later on the opposite side of the same 

 pond ; it was similarly located and constructed, but square in shape to 

 fit the hollow. Another was found "on the shore of an isolated little 

 woodland pond. The site, in this instance, was at the foot of a huge 

 stump, the nest being placed in a cavity in the rotten wood." 



A very different nesting site, in a gorge near Ithaca, N. Y., is thus 

 described in some notes sent to me by Dr. Alexander F, Skutch : "At 

 length, I entered a very narrow and deep portion of the gorge, into 

 which the stream poured by way of a murmuring fall, and then pro- 

 ceeded along the bottom through a trough in the rock. The walls of 

 the chasm rose steeply up to a height of 40 or 50 feet, either in precipi- 

 tous slopes overgrown with hemlock, spiked maple and Canadian yew. 



