176 



THE LOUISIANA WATER-THRUSH. 



searching noisily among the dead leaves hard by. Nor does he forget to 

 give vent to unallayed suspicions by an energetic chink. Or by and by he 

 tries hiding, and disappears mysteriously behind a bunch of ferns. One 

 minute, two, three, are allowed to elapse. "Ah, that means a nest," says 

 the shrewd observer ; and he moves forward with becoming caution. But 

 the bird is up and off in a trice, and flies down the glen without an apparent 

 pang. A search is made, half-heartedly, with the old result. — "nothing but 

 leaves." 



Wherever the nest is to be 

 found (there be those who 

 claim to know, but the author 

 is not one of them), one thing 

 is sure, the bird regards himsel: 

 as trustee of the whole glen, 

 and his watchful fidelity is im- 

 partially bestowed upon all 

 parts of it. If you become es- 

 pecially interested in any one 

 spot — for reasons best known 

 to yourself — why of course he 

 and his wife can go elsewhere: 

 and they move off, sniffing loft- 

 ily. Every half hour or so the 

 male bird ranges the length of 

 the glen. Now he dashes like 

 a swallow across some open 

 glade. Now he pauses i in a log 

 or stone; alternately moving 

 and inspecting until his voice is 

 lost in the distance. You may 

 be near his nest, but he does 

 not deign to notice you, further 

 than to give vent to a disdainful "humph" in passing. 



The song of the resident Water Thrush is one of our choice things. The 

 bird has found the Pierian spring, tucked away somewhere among our hills — 

 in Morgan County, I think — and has tasted to good advantage. Its notes are 

 wild and ringing clear, but sweet also as honey which the wild bees have 

 made. There is a tumultuous passage in it too, which may occupy only the mid- 

 dle portion or may engulf the whole. At times the singer's main force seems 

 to be expended in the opening peals, so that it almost instantly falls back into 

 a milder cadence or bubbling twitter, in which its warbler affinities are quickly 

 recognized. 



IliKE COOL WATERS 



