MNIOTILTID/E. 
1 5 1 
notes of its song rose above the roaring of the torrent, or a sharp 
sound as of two impacted pebbles, and a darting object more rapid 
than the waters, marked its flight up or down the stream. On the 
occasion of my first visit, its fine song, so clear and rapid that the 
waters might have taught it, in its nestling clays in some steep terrace 
beside their flow, was frequently heard repeated lor minutes at a 
time, high in the trees bordering the stream. An anxious note, doubt- 
less from a female, whenever a certain steep bend in the stream was 
approached, seemed to argue a special interest in the locality, but as 
the birds were shy their movements could not be traced, nor could a 
specimen be secured. It was principally to reverse this ill-fortune 
that a second trip was undertaken, for the interest of the case de- 
manded scientific verification that the Water Thrushes were the 
Large-billed species. Although the next visit to the region was but 
a few days later in the season, the species was silent; but an adult 
male was secured. 
The question of the route taken by these birds in gaining the head 
of the valley where they were found is an interesting one. Though 
the locality is not thirty miles from the Hudson River, and directly 
connected with it by Esopus Creek, the distance following all the 
windings of the latter is more than twice as great, and with the last 
seven or eight miles leading toward the south. However, this 
course, or a modification of it, must have been pursued if the birds 
came Irom the Hudson Valley. But, on the other hand, it must be re- 
membered that this is the region of the head-waters of the Delaware 
River, several tributaries of which rise close to the sources of Esopus 
Creek. It is therefore possible that individuals of the species under 
review ascended the Delaware River into the Catskills, and, led up 
into a low mountain spur, advanced along another water-course, into 
a different section of the region. Along the Esopus in the main 
valley the species was not met with. 
In this connection appears the interesting fact that the Large- 
billed Water Thrush enters the Catskills, at least the borders of the 
mountains, in a more northern and eastern part of the region. Mr. 
L. S. Foster showed me a specimen which he had taken about seven 
miles west from Catskill Village on the Hudson, and informed me 
o 
that he had noticed several individuals between }uly 18 and August 
2, 1880, along a mountain brook near the same locality. This fact 
reveals a tendency of the species to extend inland from the Hudson; 
but whether the remoter parts of the region are gained from this or 
from an opposite direction remains to be ascertained. 
Siurus nawius (Bodd.) Coues. Small-billed Water Thrush 
Mr. Burroughs speaks of having secured a specimen of this species, 
