NORTHERN SMALL-BILLED WATERTHRUSH 477 



SEIURUS AUROCAPILLUS CINEREUS A. H. Miller 

 GRAY OVENBIRD 



HABITS 



Dr. Alden H. Miller (1942) has given the above name to the oven- 

 birds of the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. He desciibes the 

 race as follows : "Compared with Seiurus aurocapillus aurocapillus of 

 the eastern United States and Mississippi Valley, back, rump and 

 lateral webs of rectrices grayer and paler, less intense olive-green, the 

 feather tips at least approacliing grayish olive ; green almost lacking 

 in the tails of some individuals; auriculars and side of neck less 

 tawny." 



Of its geographical distribution, he says that it breeds "along the 

 lower eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and adajacent plains 

 from the Yellowstone River in Montana south to the Arkansas River 

 in Colorado. Suitable habitats include streamside woodlands and 

 yellow pine forests." It "is known as a migrant from Sinaloa and the 

 Tres Marias Islands, Mexico, where it possibly winters." 



SEIURUS NOVEBORACENSIS NOVEBORACENSIS (Gmelin) 

 NORTHERN SMALL-BILLED WATERTHRUSH 

 Plate 59 

 HABITS 



This brilliant songster, the northern waterthrush, is known to most 

 of us in the United States as a spring and fall migrant. It often ap- 

 pears in our yards or gardens walking gracefully about on the lawn 

 or under the shrubbery, but we are much more likely to iSnd it in the 

 thickets along the edges of the swamps or ponds, on the banks of 

 streams, or walking daintily over the muddy shores of some shaded 

 woodland pool. At such times it seems rather familiar and is easily 

 approached, but on its more northern breeding grounds it is more 

 secretive and must be looked for in the more secluded nooks in cool 

 bogs, along the mountain streams, or about the shores of northern 

 lakes in the Canadian Zone. There its loud and charming song will 

 reveal its presence and tempt the listener to invade its hidden haunts. 



The breeding range of the northern waterthrush includes northern 

 New England and much of eastern Canada, but extends southward in 

 the mountains to Pennsylvania and Virginia. It breeds locally and 

 rarely in southern New England and New York, I once found it 

 breeding in Rhode Island in an extensive maple swamp where cool. 



