MNIOTILTID/E. l5l 



notes of its song rose above the roaring of the torrent, or a sharp 

 sound as of two impacted pebbles, and a darting object more rapid 

 than the waters, marked its flight up or down the stream. On the 

 occasion of my first visit, its fine song, so clear and rapid that the 

 waters might have taught it, in its nestling days in some steep terrace 

 beside their flow, was frequently heard repeated for minutes at a 

 time, high in the trees bordering the stream. An anxious note, doubt- 

 less from a female, whenever a certain steep bend in the stream was 

 approached, seemed to argue a special interest in the locality, but as 

 the birds were shy their movements could not be traced, nor could a 

 specimen be secured. It was principally to reverse this ill-fortune 

 that a second trip was undertaken, for the interest of the case de- 

 manded scientific verification that the Water Thrushes were the 

 Large-billed species. Although the next visit to the region was but 

 a few days later in the season, the species was silent; but an adult 

 male was secured. 



The question of the route taken by these birds in gaining the head 

 of the valley where they were found is an interesting one. Though 

 the locality is not thirty miles from the Hudson River, and directly 

 connected with it by Esopus Creek, the distance following all the 

 windings of the latter is more than twice as great, and with the last 

 seven or eieht miles leadinsf toward the south. However, this 

 course, or a modification of it, must have been pursued if the birds 

 came from the Hudson Valley. But, on the other hand, it must be re- 

 membered that this is the region of the head-waters of the Delaware 

 River, several tributaries of which rise close to the sources of Esopus 

 Creek. It is therefore possible that individuals of the species under 

 review ascended the Delaware River into the Catskills. and, led up 

 into a low mountain spur, advanced along another water-course, into 

 a different section of the region. Along the Esopus in the main 

 valley the species was not met with. 



In this connection appears the interesting fact that the Large- 

 billed Water Thrush enters the Catskills. at least the borders of the 

 mountains, in a more northern and eastern part of the region. Mr. 

 L. S. Foster showed me a specimen which he had taken about seven 

 miles west from Catskill Milage on the Hudson, and informed me 

 that he had noticed several individuals between July i8 and August 

 2, 1880, along a mountain brook near the same locality. This fact 

 reveals a tendency of the species to extend inland from the Hudson ; 

 but whether the remoter parts of the region are gained from this or 

 from an opposite direction remains to be ascertained. 



Siurus ujevius (Bodd.) Coues. Small-billed Water Thrush 



Mr. Burroughs speaks of having secured a specimen of this species. 



