^QerPc&Ji/rz ,Cu. 77't<v ysso c~pu'JePPF 
Breeding of the Louisiana Water- Thrush ( Seiurus motacilla) in Berkshire 
County, Massachusetts. — On the afternoon of June 28, 1902, I was fol- 
lowing up the course of a brook in Glendale, Berkshire County, Massachu- 
setts, in company with my old friend and schoolmate, Daniel Chester 
French, when we came to a secluded, shallow pond, less than a quarter of 
an acre in extent, lying between two wooded ridges of moderate elevation. 
It was made, a number of years ago, for the purpose of obtaining ice, by a 
farmer living in the neighborhood who built a rude dam across the brook 
at a point where, after winding sluggishly through what was then a grassy 
meadow, it raced down a rather steep incline between well defined banks 
overgrown with mountain laurel and densely shaded by trees of various 
kinds. As we approached the pond we heard a Water-Thrush chirping 
sharply. A moment later it appeared at the edge of a thicket with some- 
thing in its bill which looked like a large grub but which did not prevent it 
from continuing to utter its metallic note, at short, regular intervals. It 
was soon joined by its mate, the male, I thought. Fie, also, chirped but less 
anxiously and frequently than the other. Both birds now began flitting 
close about us, enabling us to make sure that they were Louisiana, and not 
Northern, Water-Thrushes. They came, indeed, so very near and into 
lights so favorable for revealing their characteristic color and markings that 
we were left in no doubt whatever as to their identity. After watching 
them for several minutes we advanced and almost immediately discovered 
their nest, which was within twenty feet of where we first saw them. It 
contained six young, well feathered and almost large enough to fly although 
they kept their eyes tight shut while we were looking at them, perhaps in 
the hope that by so doing they might escape notice. They crowded the 
nest to its utmost capacity and the coloring of their upper parts — a rich, 
deep, seal brown — closely matched that of the mud-soaked leaves which 
formed its outer surface. It was the largest nest of a Water-Thrush that 
I have ever examined. Tire crown of a man’s hat would not have held 
half its total bulk. Its situation, also, was somewhat unusual for it was 
placed on the side of a shallow pit which had been dug at the base of a 
bank to obtain earth for the construction of the dam. The rear wall of 
this excavation was vertical — or even overhanging — at the top at several 
points, but the birds had selected a place where it merely sloped steeply 
downward and outward and had here built their nest on a slight projection 
or knob scarce a foot above the level ground beneath, and wholly un- 
sheltered above, either from observation or from the weather. I did not 
return to the spot that summer but I have since revisited it almost every 
year, about the same season, without obtaining evidence, however, that 
the birds have again nested there or, indeed, anywhere in the immediate 
neighborhood. 
Mr, Walter Faxon, to whom I mentioned the above described experience 
not long after it had occurred, wrote me on October II, 1902, as follows: 
“If you record the Southern Water-Thrush’s nest (as I hope you will) you 
might take the occasion also to mention that I found a male [of this species] 
still in song on the 8th of June, 1901, at Richmond Pond, on the line 
between the townships of Richmond and Pittsfield.” Doubtless this bird 
is distributed well over the southern half of Berkshire County. — William 
Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 
Auk 26 , 
July -190 Q.+J/t-lf, 
