33 







twittering note, that sounds like the noise produced by striking two 

 pebbles rapidly together. As they emerge higher up the stream, the 

 chase is relinquished for the time, and you are surprised as they fly 

 past to hear the clear notes of its song uttered as distinctly in mid-air 

 as when perched; then the chase is renewed, but as they fly back 

 again, one of the birds rises high up in the air above its pursuer, and 

 then flutters slowly downward, pouring out its sweet song as it de- 

 scends, mingling its cadence with the sound of the brook the whole 

 effect in perfect harmony with the spirit of the place. These perfor- 

 mances take place oftenest early in the morning, about sunrise. At 

 that time its song is loudest and sweetest. The performer is usually 

 stationed upon some lofty tree-top. 



The Louisiana Water Thrush builds its nest upon the ground, usu- 

 ally in a bank at the side of a stream. It is placed upon a bed of 

 leaves, and is always protected by a projecting bank, rock or root. 

 There the eggs are deposited quite early in the season, and when, 

 by due process of incubation, they have been metamorphosed into 

 little birds, the first sound that greets the young ears of the nestlings 

 is the voice of the brook, their first sight that of dancing, sparkling 

 waters, whose murmur drowns the rustle in the tree-tops. What 

 wonder that when, reared by its gentle parents' fostering care, it 

 reaches maturity, it should still cling to the memories and associations 

 so early ingrafted, never caring to wander far from the music of its 

 native waters. 



We had no reliable account of the nidification of the Large-billed 

 Accentor until Mr. Ernest Ingersoll gave a description of a nest with 

 four fresh eggs, taken in June, 1873, at Franklin Station, New London 

 County, Conn., and fully identified by the capture of the female par- 

 ent. 5 The nest "was rather loosely and carelessly constructed of fine 

 grass and some little dead fibrous moss ; but beneath, a few, and about 

 the outside, particularly in front, many dead leaves were put, as a 

 sort of breastwork to decrease the size of the entrance and more 

 thoroughly conceal the sitting bird. It was underneath the edge of a 

 perpendicular bank eight or ten feet from the water." The eggs, 

 "lustrous white, were more or less profusely spotted all over with 

 dots and specks, and some obscure zigzaggings, of two tints of red- 

 dish-brown, with numerous faint points and touches of lilac and very 

 pale underlying red." Dr. Coues gives ("Birds of the Northwest," 

 p. 73, 1874) the following notice: "The Large-billed Water Thrush 

 has been found breeding on the Wachita River, where the nest and 

 eggs were secured by Mr. J. H. Clark, and at Kiowa Agency, where 

 Dr. Palmer also procured them. The one of these two nests in the 



6 See American Naturalist, Vol. VIII, p. 238. 



