64 NESTS AND EGGS OF N. A. BIRDS, 



Il6a. SIURUS N^EVIUS NOTABILIS. 



GRINNELL'S WATER THRUSH. =* 



117. SIURUS MOTACILLA. 



LARGE-BILLED WATER THRUSH. 



"Until very recently we have had little or no reliable information 

 bearing upon the nidification of the Large-billed Water Thrush. "'■•*"-•■ 

 The writer had the good fortune to secure two fully identified nests 

 of this species, in Knox County, Indiana, during the past Spring. 

 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 some- 

 what irregular wall about six feet in height and ten or twelve 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 pe- 

 culiar character of its composition, 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 ad- 

 hering 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 hol- 

 low, measuring 2.50 inches in diameter by 2.50 inches in depth. 

 This inner nest is composed of small twigs and green mosses, with 

 a lining of dry grasses and a few hairs of squirrels or other mam- 

 mals arranged circularly. 



The eggs found in this nest are of a rounded-oval shape and pos- 

 sess 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 



