THE LABGE-BILLED WAGTAIL. 149 



but only an inch and a half in depth, being very nearly flat, the 

 cavity only half an inch deep. The entire base was made of loose 

 hypnum mosses, interspersed with a few dead leaves and stems. 

 The whole inner structure or hning was made up of the fruit- 

 stems of the same moss, densely impacted. The outer circum- 

 ference was made up of mosses and intertwined small, black vege- 

 table roots." 



This is all the books have to say on the subject which can 

 be trusted. 



94. THE LARGE-BILLED WAGTAIL. 



SEIURUS MOTACILLA Vieillot. 



Louisiana 'Water-Thrush, "Wagtail or Accentor; Large-bUled Accentor; 

 W^arbler-Tlu-ush. 



The geographical distribution of this wagtail is southern, reach- 

 ing in its northernmost breeding limit only the southern edge of 

 the summer range of the small-billed species ; and westward to 

 Kansas. Like the former it is to be sought in low, wet districts 

 or along mountain brooks, and is shy of observation and secret 

 in its domestic ways. Although a very common resident in the 

 south, its breeding habits have only recently been really well 

 known; and the knowledge has been so skilfully combined by 

 Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, in his admirable contributions to the elev- 

 enth volume of the Proceedings of the Essex Institute, that I 

 can do no better than to quote him at length. 



We had no reliable account of the nidification of the large-billed ac- 

 centor, until Mr. Ernest Ingersoll gave a description of a nest with four fresh 

 eggs, taken in June, 1873, at Franklin station, New London county. Conn., 

 and fully identified by the capture of the female parent.* The nest "was rather 

 loosely and carelessly constructed of fine grass and some little dead fibrous 

 moss, but beneath, a few, and about the outside, particularly in front, many 

 dead leaves were put, as a sort of breastwork to decrease the size of the 

 entrance and more thoroughly conceal the sitting bird. It was underneath 



*Am. Naturalist, vm, p. 238. 



