SYLVICOLID^E — THE WARBLERS. 287 



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

 island, in a river, that, has been overflowed, and always very 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 other. Their ground is a clear crystal- white, and they are 

 more or less marked with lines, dots, and dashes 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 distriljuted over the whole egg. In 

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

 leaving the rest of the egg nearly unmarked. 



Seiurus ludovicianus, Bonap. 



LOUISIANA WATER THRUSH. 



Turdus ludovicianus, Aun. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 99, pi. xix. Seiurus ludovicianus, Bon. — 

 B.AIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 262, pi. Ixxx, fig. 2 ; Rev. 217. — Sclateu, P. Z. S. 1859, 

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

 273 (Guatemala). — Samuels, 579. Hcnicocichla lud. Sclateu, Catal. 1861, 25, no. 

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

 tucky). Seiunos motaeilla, Bon. 1850. Hcnicocichla mot. Cab. Jour. 1857, 240 (Cuba). 

 — Gundlach, Jour. Orn. 1861, 326. Hcnicocichla 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 

 lid, 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. Eastern Province of United States as for north as Carlisle, Penn., and Michigan; 

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



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

 the flanks and crissum, and the brown above ^iumz 



rather darker and less grayish than in spring ^ — ^? Nutt. / 



birds. 



This species is very similar to B. novcbo- 

 raccnsis, although readily distinguishable by 

 the characters given in the diagnoses. The 

 differences in the bill there referred to are sdurusiudovidaQis, 

 illustrated in the accompanying diagram. soaap. 



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

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

 as the Louisiana Water Thrush, though its position as a genuine species was 

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



