82 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
yellow. Throat and breast thickly spotted with very dark 
brown. ‘ Feet dark.” 
(b). The nest is usually built on or near the ground, in a 
swamp or at least the neighborhood of water. The eggs of 
each set are usually four, average °85-67 of an inch, though 
variable in size, and in coloration closely resemble those of the 
Golden-crowned ‘“* Thrush” (C,b). A nest, which I found 
near Boston, contained fresh eggs in the first week of June. 
(c). The Water ‘‘Thrushes” are to be found in northern 
New England as summer-residents, but, though a very few 
pass the summer in Massachusetts, they are common in this 
State, or at least parts of it, only during their migrations —in 
the third and fourth weeks of May, and the first or second of 
September. While in the neighborhood of Boston, they remain 
near streams and bodies of water or in wet woodland, and pick 
up the little insects, and other things upon which they feed, 
almost exclusively from the ground, often wading, however, in 
shallow water. When sojourning here, they are not very shy, 
and it is easy to approach them so as to watch their peculiar 
motions, which recall those of the sandpiper, and are yet 
partially characterized by a constant jerking of the tail—a 
habit which belongs to several other common birds, such as the 
Pewee, who depresses the tail, however, instead of jerking it: 
upwards. The Water ‘‘Thrushes” are, on the other hand, 
very shy in their delightful summer-homes, and would almost 
escape notice, but for their very charming song. As it is, they 
are rarely seen, for they are very nimble on the ground, and on 
man’s approach leave their paddling in the mountain-brooks, 
and their pleasant labors on the banks, to hide in thickets or 
underbrush. Imagine a forest, which man has never invaded, 
and through it flowing a cool, clear stream, whose course is 
broken by ‘the rocks, round which it bends, or over which it 
falls into some foaming pool, and you will know the haunts of 
these birds; imagine music, which can hardly be excelled, and 
you can faintly realize the charms of such places, if you do 
not already know them. 
(d). “The Water ‘Thrushes’ song is loud, clear, and ex- 
