150 NESTS AND EGGS OF BIBDS. 



the edge of a perpendicular bank, eight or ten feet from the water." The 

 eggs, lustrous white, were more or less profusely spotted all over with dots 

 and specks, and some obscure zigzaggines, of two tints of reddish brown, 

 with numerous faint points and touches of lilac and very pale underlying red. 

 Dr. Coues gives (Birds of the Northwest, p. 73, 1874) the following notice: 

 "The large-billed water thrush has been found breeding on the Wachita 

 river [Kansas] where the nests and eggs were secured by Mr. J. H. Clark, 

 and at Kiowa Agency, where Dr. Palmer also procured them. The one of 

 these two nests in the best condition was built upon a layer of leaves, appar- 

 ently upon the ground, composed otherwise entirely of rootlets and fine grasses. 

 The other contained five eggs; they are more globular than any of those 

 of S. noveboracensis I have seen, but not otherwise different; and other 

 sets would probably not be distinguishable. The roundest one of them 

 measures only 0.69 by 0.59." 



These nests remained unique until Mr. William Brewster " had the good 

 fortune to secure two fully identified nests of this species in Knox County, 

 Indiana," in the spring of 1878. "The first, taken with the female parent 

 May 6, contained six eggs, which had been incubated a few days. The 

 locality was the edge of a lonely forest pool in the depths of a cypress 

 swamp near White River. 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 tvA'elve 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 com- 

 position, would have been exceedingly conspicuous. 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, rises 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, meas- 

 uring 2.50 inches in diameter by 2.50 inches in depth. This inner nest is com- 

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

 few hairs of squirrels or other mammals arranged circularly. The eggs 

 found in this nest are of a rounded-oval shape and possess a high polish. 

 Their ground-color is white with a fleshy tint. About the greater ends are 

 numerous large but exceedingly regular blotches of dark umber with fainter 

 sub-markings of pale lavender, while over the remainder of their surface 

 are thickly sprinkled dottings of reddish brown. But slight variation of 

 marking occurs, and that mainly with regard to the relative size of the 

 blotches upon the greater ends. They measure, respectively, .75X.63, .78X 

 .64, .75X.63, .76X.62, .76X.62, .75X.61." 



