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220 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
that a skunk or other depredator had destroyed the whole 
family. 
The Oven-bird feeds principally upon small insects and 
smooth caterpillars, which it obtains usually on the ground, 
among the fallen leaves: when berries are in season, it feeds 
occasionally upon them; and it seems particularly fond of 
small spiders, with which I have sometimes found its stom- 
ach filled. About the 12th or 15th of September, after the 
young birds have become capable of providing for them- 
selves, the whole family leave for the South. 
SEIURUS NOVEBORACENSIS. — Nuttall. 
The Water Thrush; Water Wagtail. 
Motacilla Noveboracensis, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 958. 
Turdus (Seiurus) Noveboracensis, Nuttall. Man., I. (1832) 358. 
Turdus aquaticus, Wilson. Am. Orn., III. (1811) 66. Aud. Orn. Biog., V. (1889) 
284. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Bill, from rictus, about the length of the skull; above olive-brown, with a shade 
of green; beneath pale sulphur-yellow, brightest on the abdomen; region about the 
base of the lower mandible, and a superciliary line from the base of the bill to the 
nape, brownish-yellow; a dusky line from the bill through the eye; chin and throat 
finely spotted; all the remaining under parts and sides of the body, except the 
abdomen, and including the under tail coverts, conspicuously and thickly streaked 
with olivaceous-brown, almost black on the breast. 
Length, six and fifteen one-hundredths inches; wing, three and twelve one-hun- 
dredths inches; tail, two and forty one-hundredths inches; bill, from rictus, sixty- 
four one-hundredths of an inch. 
This bird is not very uncommon in New England in the 
spring and fall migrations (arriving about the Ist of May, 
and departing about the last week in September); and I 
have sometimes seen it in summer in Massachusetts. It 
undoubtedly breeds in the three northern of these States, 
and probably in them all. In its habits, it much resembles 
the preceding species; but it is seldom found in any but a 
wet locality. 
Wilson says, “This bird is remarkable for its partiality 
to brooks, rivers, shores, ponds, and streams of water; 
