18S;i-90.] ORNITHOLOGICAL REPORT. 7 



In all nine species of Owl have been procured in the heart or the 

 city of Toronto. This includes all our Owls except the Barn Owl, (Stric 

 Pmticola) and the Hawk Owl. — Wm. Cross. 



(Third Meeting, February 11th, 1890). 



29. At this meeting so many fragmentary observations on the Cocco- 

 thraustes vcspertina were presented, that it was decided to hold them all 

 over for a single concise report at the end of the season. 



30. Nesting of the Seiurus noveboracensis. — The favorite haunts 

 of the Water Thrush are low swampy woods, or the margins of 

 muddy creeks and drains. Its nesting places are, of course, in similar 

 localities. Although I have been a resident of Canadian backwoods 

 from my early days, and have rambled many a day and many a 

 mile through pathless wilds and was, moreover, perfectly familiar with the 

 bird itself, I had never seen the nest or the eggs of this Wagtail until 

 the summer of '82, when in the early part of June, being in a piece of 

 swampy bush, I discovered a nest containing four eggs and a young Cow- 

 bird just hatched. The nest was in a hole in a large turned-up root of a 

 tree, under which was a large pool of water into which the bird jumped 

 when flushed from the nest. Her exit from the pool and her disappear- 

 ance among some brushwood were, however, but the work of a moment, 

 and while I was examining the nest she returned and I became certain 

 of her identity, otherwise I would have taken the nest for that of a Junco, 

 so much did it and the eggs resemble those of that bird. On May 22nd 

 of the following year, as I was crossing a piece of swamp or wild- wood, I 

 noticed, near the root of a fallen tree, a Water Thrush, which by her 

 notes and actions intimated that her nesting place was near. Taking off 

 my boots I waded into the water beneath the overhanging root and found 

 on a kind of shelf about a foot above the surface of the pool, a nest con- 

 taining two eggs. This nest was composed externally of moss, rather 

 loosely put together and lined with dry fungus of a small species, fine 

 grass and hair. On the 24th I returned and found that five eggs in all 

 had been deposited. I took them and they are now in my collection. 

 These are of a white hue, having the large end umber brown, and the 

 greater part of the surface irregularly dotted over with small spots of the 

 same color. Last spring I saw in the same root another nest of the same 

 species containing four of its own young and one of a Cow-bird. This 

 seems to indicate that, if not much disturbed, it will nest repeatedly in 

 the same place, though it does not a second time occupy the same nest. — 

 Wm. L. Kells, Listowel, Ont., 1885. 



