270 Barrows oti Birds of the Lower Uruguay. [July 



coveted prize. At last my search was rewarded by nests in con- 

 siderable numbers, and all as nearly alike in location, structure, 

 and materials, as it is possible for nests to be. 



Placed a few feet from the ground, and against the trunk of an 

 evergreen tree, it was composed externally of various kinds of 

 mosses, including a few fine sticks, weed-stems and rootlets, and 

 was lined with fine grasses well bleached ; so that, outside, the nest 

 was as green as a bunch of fresh moss, and the inside was light 

 brown. The eggs, .87 X -63 of an inch, are light bluish-green, 

 speckled with brown. 



About the Mud and Seal Islands dense fogs prevail almost 

 continually throughout the summer. This excessive moisture, so 

 productive of mosses, causes the moss in the walls of the 

 Thrushes' nests to grow ; hence the nests of previous years, well 

 protected from the weather by dense evergreens, become elegant 

 moss-baskets finely ornamented within and without with living 

 cryptogams. I saw a number such, which looked as if they had 

 grown in situ on the trees. 



Some 7 inches or a little less in length, Bicknell's Thrush, as 

 above found, is uniform deep olive-brown above ; the sides of the 

 white under parts being ashy-gray, and the sides of the neck and 

 the upper part of the breast but slightly tinged with buff'; while 

 the neck and breast-spots are not so large as in the typical swain- 

 soni. 



To my eye the bird does not appear so large as the other 

 Thrushes, and the bill is unmistakably differentiated, both by its 

 slenderness and by its delicately carved outline. 



BIRDS OF THE LOWER URUGUAY. 



BY WALTER B. BARROWS. 



{^Continued from p. iij.) 



141 . Phalacrocorax brasilianus ( Gin.) . Cuervo del agua 

 (Water Crow). — An abundant resident at Concepcion on 

 all streams, large and small. Usually met with in pairs or small 



