632 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
near relative noveborucensis, but our observations on the bird in Michigan 
are so few that we can add nothing definite on this point. 
/ 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Very similar to the Small-billed Water-thrush, but somewhat larger, the upper parts 
darker brown, the line over the eye whiter, and the lower parts less distinctly yellow. 
Sexes alike. 
Length 5.50 to 6.50 inches; wing 2.90 to 3.25; tail 2.10 to 2.50; culmen .44 to .50. 
289. Large-billed Water-thrush. Seiurus motacilla (Vicvll.). (676) 
Synonyms: Louisiana Water-thrush, Southern Water-thrush, Wag-tail, Water Wag- 
tail.—Turdus motacilla, Vieill., 1807.—Seiurus ludovicianus of the older ornithologists, 
1838-1880.—Siurus motacilla, Coues, 1877. 
Similar to the two preceding, but larger than either; lighter brown above 
and buffy white below with no sulphur yellow tinge; the streaks on breast 
and sides broad and brown; throat without spots or streaks; stripe over 
the eye pure white. 
Distribution.—Eastern United States, north to southern New England 
and southern Michigan, casually north to Lake George, northeastern 
New York, west to the Plains. In winter West Indies, southern Mexico, 
and Central America to Panama. 
This is the common Water-thrush of southern Michigan and the only 
one thus far positively known to nest in the state. It is a summer resident 
of at least the southern third of the state, but so far as we can learn there 
is no record of its occurrence north of Montcalm county. As explained 
in connection with the Small-billed Water-thrush these two species have 
been badly confused by observers and there is much incertainty about 
some of the notes, but we have never seen a specimen from any point 
north of the Saginaw Grand Valley, and it is significant that no specimens 
of this species have ever been received from Spectacle Reef Light, where 
so many thousands of migrants have been killed, and from which place 
specimens were sent to Washington for more than a dozen years. 
It is fairly common at Port Huron, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and all 
territory south of these points, arriving from the south almost invariably 
in April, not infrequently before the middle of the month. At Agri- 
cultural College, Ingham county, Mr. Hankinson recorded the first on 
April 12, 1896 and April 22, 1897, while at Detroit Mr. Swales gives its 
time of arrival as April 20 and May 1. At Ann Arbor Mr. Norman A. 
Wood gives the earliest arrival in spring as April 22, 1883, and the average 
as May 7, but we feel sure that the species as a rule arrives much earlier 
than these records would indicate, especially as the average date of arrival 
for the Small-billed Water-thrush is given as May 10. In our own ex- 
perience in Ingham county, covering seventeen years, we have found 
the Large-billed Water-thrush to precede the Small-bill by at least ten 
days on the average. 
This bird frequents very wet ground always, but is by no means confined 
to running streams, since it is a regular inhabitant of more or less stagnant 
swamps, and is not infrequently found in bushy marshes at some little 
distance from large woods. It usually nests among the upturned roots 
of a prostrate tree, but also hides its nest under the edge of a fallen log 
or in the sloping bank of a small stream, or even among the tangled roots 
