LARGE-BILLED WATER THRUSH. 271 
and making preparations for nesting. Here they were indiscriminately 
in trees, on the ground, or wading on the level slaty bottoms of the shal- 
low brooks. Frequently they mounted to the upper branches of high 
trees overhanging the ravines, from whence their loud and mellow song 
echoed along the winding banks with surpassing sweetness. But 
whether on the giound, in trees, or in the water, the constant tipping of 
the tail and balancing of the body. is a reminder of the stiff jerk and 
nod of the Tatler, which reappears with added grace and style in several 
terrestrial and aquatic members of the higher groups. 
I have never seen the-nest and eggs of this bird, and copy the follow- 
ing from Mr. Brewster’s account, in the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornitho- 
logical Ciub, 111, 1878, 133. 
‘‘The nest, taken with the female parent, May 6, contained six eggs, which had been 
incubated a few days. The locality was the edge of a lonely forest pool in the depths 
of a cypress swamp near White River (ludiana). <A large tree had fallen into the shal- 
low water, and the earth adhering te the roots, formed a nearly vertical, but somewhat 
irregular wall, abont six feet in height and ten or twelvein width. Near the upper edge 
of this, in a cavity among the finer roots, was placed the nest, which, but for the situ- 
ation and peculiarcharacter of its composition, would have been exceedingly conspicu- 
ous. Its presence was first betrayed by the female, which darted off as one of our party 
brushed by within a few feet. She alighted on a low branch a few rods distant, utter- 
ing her sharp note of alarm, and vibrating: her tail in the usual characteristic manner, 
but otherwise evincing no particular anxiety or concern. The nest, which is before me, 
is exceedingly large and bulky, measuring externally 3.50 inches in diameter by 8 inches 
in length, and 350 inches in depth. Its outer wail, a solid mass of soggy dead leaves, 
plastered tightly together by the mud adhering to their surfaces, rises in ihe form of a 
rounded parapet, the onter edge of which was nicely graduated to conform to the edge 
of the earthy bank in which it was placed. In one corner of this mass, and well back, 
is the nest proper, a neatly rounded, cup-shaped hollow, measuring 2.50 inches in depth. 
The inner nest is composed of small twigs and green mosses, with a lining of dry grasses 
and 2 few hairs of squirrels or other animals, arranged circularly. The eggs found in 
this nest are of a rounded-oval shape, and possess a high polish. The ground-color is 
white, with a fleshy tint. About the greater ends are numerous large but exceedingly 
regular bletches of dark umber, with fainter sub-markings of pale lavender, while over 
the remainder of their surface are thickly sprinkled dottings of reddish-brown. But 
slight variation of marking occurs, and that mainly with regard to the relative size of 
the blotches about the greater ends. They measure sespectively .75 by 63, .78 by .64, .75 
by .63, .76 by .62, .76 by .62, .75 by .61.” 
GENUS OPORORNIS. Baird. 
Wings much longer than tail; the first primary nearly or quite «qual the longest. Tarsi 
elongated ; hind claw as long as its digit. Otherwise, with the generic characters of 
Siurus. 
