SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 171 



and quite notable in appearance. His back is clear 

 olive-green ; his throat and breast bright yellow. A 

 Btill more prominent feature is a black streak on the 

 side of the face, extending down the neck. 



Another familiar bird here, which I never met with 

 in the North, is the gnatcatcher, called by Audubon 

 the blue gray fly-catching warbler. In form and man- 

 ner it seems almost a duplicate of the cat-bird, on a 

 small scale. It mews like a young kitten, erects its 

 tail, flirts, droops its wings, goes through a variety of 

 motions when disturbed by your presence, and in 

 many ways recalls its dusky prototype. Its color 

 above is a light, gray blue, gradually fading till it 

 becomes white on the breast and belly. It is a very 

 Email bird, and has a long, facile, slender tail. Its 

 song is a lisping, chattering, incoherent warble, now 

 faintly reminding one of the goldfinch, now of a min- 

 iature cat-bird, then of a tiny yellow-hammer, having 

 much variety, but no unity, and little cadence. 



Another bird which has interested me here is the 

 Louisiana water-thrush, called also large-billed water- 

 thrush, and water-wagtail. It is one of a trio of birds 

 which has confused the ornithologists much. The 

 other two species are the well-known golden-crowned 

 thrush (Seiurus aurocapillus) or wood-wagtail, and 

 the Northern, or small, water-thrush (Seiurus nove- 

 boracensis). 



The present species, though not abundant, is fre- 

 quently met with along Rock Creek. It is a very 

 quick, vivacious bird, and belongs to the class of ec- 



