The Water-Thrush ( Seiurus noveboracensis ) Nesting in Rhode Island. 
— In April of the present year I was searching through a swamp in Wash- 
ington County for Red-shouldered Hawks’ nests and came upon some 
uprooted trees in a small area which was very wet and swampy. In 
looking over one of these stumps I found a last year’s nest which from its 
location gave me a suggestion that a Water-Thrush might have nested 
there. 
On May 20, in company with Mr. John H. Flanagan, I again visited 
the swamp and upon approaching the spot where I found the old nest I 
heard a Water-Thrush singing. A search through the swamp was begun 
for its nest and after examining nearly every stump, I found it with the 
female sitting closely. We approached within two feet of the nest, thor- 
oughly examining her, and were fully satisfied that it was the Water- 
Thrush (Seiurus noveboracensis). The bird would not leave when we 
struck the root and only left -when I almost touched her with my hand, 
and flew into a tree within ten feet of us, and all the time we were there 
she was close by in clear view uttering a sharp chirp and kept her tail in 
motion like a Spotted Sandpiper’s. 
There were five eggs, incubated but three or four days. The nest was 
placed in a cavity in the roots about a foot above the water, which was 
two feet deep here. It was very beautifully and compactly built of a 
dark green moss mixed ■with its seed stalks, fine rootlets, and a few pieces 
of dead maple leaves on the bottom. The lining was made of fine white 
rootlets, each piece about two inches long and which resembled horse hair. 
The outside was about four inches in diameter and two inches in depth 
with walls three quarters of an inch thick. We again visited the same 
locality on June 6 with the hope of finding a second set, but a careful 
search of every root did not reveal one. Three males were singing a few 
hundred feet apart and two birds, each in different parts of the swamp, 
were feeding young, just able to fly, one of which I shot, as I did also a male. 
Near my home in South Auburn in former years I have seen the Water- 
Thrush during the migration in spring as early as May 7, and they have 
lingered with us until the fifteenth of the month. Probably the birds are 
mated as soon as they arrive on their breeding ground and commence to 
build their nest at once, for the first egg was probably laid in this nest by 
May 12. 
This is the first instance of its breeding in Rhode Island, and from the 
number of birds noted, it now can be called a rare local summer resident, 
and spring and fall migrant. — Harry S. Hathaway, South Auburn, R. I. 
kCA, X- It, . . U v .HRZ -QUU. 
