NEW YORK OR AQUATIC THRUSH. 
353 
habit of moving the tail. In T. aurocapillus , the white and spotted 
eggs, very artful nest, and usual monotonous rattling notes, are ex- 
ceptions to its arrangement either in Sylvia or Turdus, except as a 
subgenus. 
NEW YORK or AQUATIC THRUSH. 
( Turdus noveboracenis, Nobis. T. aquaticus , Audubon, pi. 19. 
Wilson, iii. p. 66. pi. 23. fig. 5. Sylvia noveboracensis , Latham 
and Bonap. Phil. Museum, No. 6896.) 
Sp. Charact. — Dark olive ; beneath and line over the eye yellow- 
ish white ; breast and sides with dusky pencil-shaped spots. 
This shy and retiring sylvan species extends its sum- 
mar migrations throughout the United States, breeding 
rarely in Pennsylvania, proceeding principally to the 
mountainous Western and Northern regions at the pe- 
riod of incubation. 
The New York Warbler has a particular partiality for 
the vicinity of waters, wading in the shallow streams in 
search of aquatic insects, moving its tail as it leisurely 
follows its pursuit, and chattering as it flies. During its 
transient migrating visits it is very timid, and darts into 
the thickets as soon as approached, uttering a sharp and 
rather plaintive tship* of alarm. About the beginning of 
May, it appears in Pennsylvania from the South, and 
stays around dark and solitary streams for 10 or 12 days, 
and then disappears until about the middle of August, 
when, on their way to their tropical winter quarters, they 
leave the swamps and mountains of their summer retreat, 
and, after again gleaning a transient subsistence for a 
few days towards the sea-coast, depart for the season. In 
Massachusetts, they are scarcely ever seen except in the 
autumn, and continue in shady gardens, probably feed- 
30 * 
