48 AVIFAUNA COLUMBIANA. 



51. (67.) Siurus motacilla ( lleill.) Up. (S. ludovicianus of the original edition.) 



Large-billed Water Thrush. 



This bird, generally considered so rare, we have found to he not at 

 all uncommon at certain seasons in particular localities. From the 20th 

 of April to the 10th of May it may always be procured by an acute 

 collector in the dense laurel brakes which border the banks and fill the 

 ravines leading into Rock Creek and Piney Branch. AVe have found it 

 as early as April 10, and we think we have seen it in June. If the lat- 

 ter observation be correct, it would prove it to breed here, as undoubt- 

 edly it does. We have not detected it in the fall. It is usually very 

 shy, when disturbed darting at once into the most impenetrable brakes, 

 but we have sometimes seen it quite the reverse, and once shot a pair, 

 one after the other, as they sat in full view before us, unconcernedly 

 wagging their tails. We have nearly always found it in pairs, even so 

 early as April 28. The usual note is a sparrow-like chirp, resembling 

 the sound made when two pebbles are struck together; but there is 

 also a loud and most melodious song, the beauty of which first drew our 

 attention to this attractive bird. [l^S] 



52. (57.) Oporoniis agilis ( Wils.) Bd. Connecticut Warbler. 



Rather uncommon in the fall during the month of October. It is 

 extremely rare in the spring, and we have ourselves never seen it at 

 that season excepting in 1882, when several specimens were taken. 

 Mr. E. W. kelson secured one in the District that year the 30th of 

 May. In May, 1879, one was taken at Falls Church by Mr. L. McCor- 

 mick, as we are informed by Mr. Palmer. In the fall of the year it is 

 comparatively easy to obtain. We cannot give the exact dates of its 

 arrival and departure. It frequents low thickets in swampy places and 

 also old buckwheat and cornfields, searching for food among the rank, 

 dry weeds of autumn, not unlike the Dendrceca palmar um. [139] 



53. (58.) Oporoniis formosa ( Wils.) Bd. Kentucky Warbler. 



Hare summer resident, a few breeding with us ; but its times of arrival 

 and departure we have not ascertained. It is a quiet but not shy bird, 



Fig. 17. — Head of Kentucky Warbler, nat. size. 



found chiefly in low w r oods where the undergrowth is thickest, the ra- 

 vines leading into Eock Creek, and similar sequestered resorts. Mr. 

 H. W. Henshaw has found it nesting on Rock Creek, and Mr. William 

 Palmer has secured three specimens, one on the Virginia side of the 



