266 AN ded HEAD HOLIDAY. 
guage, in its present rudimentary state, cannot 
begin to take account of them. 
The other warblers at Owl’s Head, as far as 
they came under my notice, were the black-and- 
white creeper, the blue yellow-backed warbler, 
the Nashville, the black-throated green, the 
black -throated blue, the yellow-rumped, the 
chestnut - sided, the oven - bird (already spoken 
of), the small-billed water thrush, the Maryland 
yellow-throat, the Canadian flycatcher, and the 
redstart. 
The water thrush (I saw only one individual) 
was by the lake-side, and within a rod or two of 
the bowling alley. What a strange, composite 
creature he is! thrush, warbler, and sandpiper 
all in one; with such a bare-footed, bare-legged 
appearance, too, as if he must always be ready 
to wade; and such a Saint Vitus’s dance! His 
must be a curious history. In particular, I 
should like to know the origin of his teetering 
habit, which seems to put him among the beach 
birds. Can it be that such frequenters of shal- 
low water are rendered less conspicuous by this 
wave-like, up-and-down motion, and have actu- 
ally adopted it as a means of defense, just as they 
and many more have taken on a color harmoniz- 
ing with that of their ordinary surroundings? } 
1 This bird (Siwrus nevius) is remarkable for the promptness 
with which he sets out on his autumnal journey, appearing in 
Eastern Massachusetts early in August. Last year (1884) one was 
