_Motacilla noveboracensis_, GMELIN, S. N. I, 1788, 958. _Sylvia nov._
LATH.; VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. II, pl. lxxxii. _Seiurus nov._
NUTT.; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. III, pl. cxcix.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am.
1858, 261, pl. lxxx, fig. 1; Rev. 215.—MAX. Cab. Jour. 1858,
121.—DALL & BANNISTER (Alaska).—SAMUELS, 220. _Henicocichla nov._
CAB. Schom. Guiana, III, 666; Jour. 1860, 324 (Costa
Rica).—SCLATER (Tobago).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba).
_Mniotilta nov._ GRAY. _?? Motacilla fuscescens_, GMELIN, S. N.
984 (based on _Ficedula jamaicensis_, BRISSON, III, 512, Jamaica).
_Turdus aquaticus_, WILS.; AUD. Orn. Biog. 1839, 284, pl.
ccccxxxiii. _Sylvia anthoides_, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. XI, 1817,
208. _Seiurus tenuirostris_, SW. 1827; GAMB. _Seiurus_
_sulfurascens_, D’ORBIGNY, Sagra’s Cuba, 1840, 57, pl. vi.
_Seiurus gosse_, BON. Consp. 1850, 306 (Jamaica). _? Anthus
l’herminieri_, LESS. Rev. Z. 1839, 101 (Colombia).
Other localities quoted: _Xalapa_, SCLATER. _Guatemala_, SCLATER &
SALVIN. _Panama_, LAWRENCE. _Carthagena_, CASSIN. _Santa Cruz_
(winter), NEWTON. _Cuba_, CAB. _Jamaica_, GOSSE.; SCL.
_Venezuela_, SCL. & SALV. _Yucatan_, LAWR. _St. Bartholemy_, SUND.
_Veragua_, SALV.
SP. CHAR. Bill, from rictus, about the length of the skull. Above
olive-brown, with a shade of green; beneath pale sulphur-yellow,
brightest on the abdomen. Region about the base of the lower mandible,
and a superciliary line from the base of the bill to the nape,
brownish-yellow. A dusky line from the bill through the eye; chin and
throat finely spotted. All the remaining under parts and sides of the
body, except the abdomen, and including the under tail-coverts,
conspicuously and thickly streaked with olivaceous-brown, almost black
on the breast. Length, 6.15; wing, 3.12; tail, 2.40. Bill, from
rictus, .64. Sexes similar.
HAB. Eastern Province of North America, north to Arctic Ocean and
Yukon (westward along northern border of United States to Cascade
Mountains); Fort Bridger, (DREXLER); Arizona (COUES); whole West
Indies; Southeastern Mexico; all Central America; Panama and Eastern
South America (Bogota; Carthagena; Brazil).
A very young bird (22,619, Fort Simpson, August 10) is very different
from the adult in coloration. The upper parts are fuliginous-black,
each feather with a broad terminal bar of pale ochraceous,
wing-coverts tipped with the same, forming two distinct bands; streaks
below as in the adult, but broader and less sharply defined.
HABITS. This species has a general distribution, at certain seasons,
throughout the whole of eastern North America as far to the north as
the Arctic Ocean. North of the United States it is also found on the
Pacific coast as far south as the Cascade Mountains. In the winter it
is quite common in all the West India Islands, in Southeastern Mexico,
Central America, Panama, and the eastern part of South America to
Brazil. From about latitude 43° northward it breeds throughout all
North America. Sir John Richardson met with it at the Carlton House,
where it was found frequenting the moist and thickly wooded banks of
the river. These birds made their first appearance in May, and the
greater portion soon after disappeared, as if proceeding still farther
north to breed.
Among other memoranda given me by the late Mr. Kennicott was one
furnished him by Mr. Lockhart, to the effect that, at Yukon River,
June 21, 1859, he had shot a female Water Thrush as she flew from her
nest. This contained five eggs, and was concealed under a small pile
of drift, close to the river, but under large willow-trees. This was
not lined with down. At the same locality another nest with six eggs
was also obtained. This also was on the ground at the foot of some
willows near the water. It was made of moss, and lined with very fine
grass.
All that has been given by our earlier authors as to the habits of
this species must be received with more or less uncertainty. The
difference between this bird and that known as the Louisiana Thrush
has not been sufficiently clear to these writers to enable us always
to determine which of the two they had in view. And even now the
distribution in summer of the _ludovicianus_ is hardly definable with
precision.
Wilson describes the habits of those he observed in Pennsylvania as
evincing a remarkable partiality for brooks, rivers, ponds, and the
vicinity of water generally, wading in shallow pools in search of
aquatic insects, and giving, as it moves it along, an almost
continuously vibratory motion to its tail. He speaks of it as very
shy, darting away with signs of alarm whenever approached, and
uttering a sharp cry. In all other respects his account of this bird
probably refers to the Louisiana species.
This is also, without doubt, true of nearly all Audubon gives in
connection with the history of this Thrush, which in all probability
does not breed in Louisiana, nor remain there through April, being at
that time well on its way to more northern regions.
Mr. Gosse, in his notes on the birds of Jamaica, states that this bird
reappears in that island about the end of August. He noticed them
about the muddy margins of ponds, and they soon became abundant.
Individuals were also to be seen running on the road, especially near
the sea-shore, and by the edges of morasses. They ran rapidly, often
waded up to their tibiæ in water, or ran along the twigs of a fallen
tree at the brink, and now and then flew up into the branches of a
pimento or an orange-tree. Whether running or standing, they were
continually flirting up their tails, after the manner of the European
Wagtail. During its winter residence in Jamaica it has no song, only a
monotonous cry, a sharp _chip_. Its stomach was found to contain
water-insects and shells. Mr. March has noticed their arrival in
Jamaica as early as August 5. They all leave by the first of April.
Mr. Allen found these birds not uncommon both in spring and in fall in
the vicinity of Springfield. He thinks a few breed there, as he has
met with them in the months of June, July, and August, very sparingly
however. They arrive about the 12th of May. I have once, at least, met
with its nest and eggs near Boston.
Dr. Coues says this bird is quite common, both in the spring and fall,
near Washington, and breeds sparingly, having been found there in
July. They arrive about the first of May, are eminently aquatic,
frequent swampy thickets and thick dark woods interspersed with pools,
where they associate with the Solitary Tatler.
In Southern Illinois this species, Mr. Ridgway states, is found only
during its migrations and in mild winters. He never met with it in the
breeding-season, when the _S. ludovicianus_ is so abundant. But it
returns early from the North, and he has shot numbers of them in
August. During the whole fall they are common about all swampy places,
or the margin of creeks in the woods; and in mild winters a few are
found in the swamps of the bottom-lands, where the dense forest
affords them comfortable shelter. On warm days in December and
January, he has heard them singing with all the vigor of spring in
such localities. In notes, as well as in manners, Mr. Ridgway has
noticed little difference between this species and _S. ludovicianus_.
The song, however, is decidedly weaker, though scarcely less sweet,
and the two are very easily distinguished at sight by one familiar
with them.
These birds breed, though they are not very abundant, in the vicinity
of Calais, and also in the western part of Maine. Professor Verrill
states that they reached the neighborhood of Norway, Me., about the
first of May, a fortnight earlier than Mr. Allen noted their arrival
in Springfield. Mr. Verrill demonstrated the fact of their breeding in
Western Maine, by finding, June 8, 1861, a nest and eggs in a dense
cedar swamp near Norway. This was built in an excavation in the side
of a decayed moss-covered log, the excavation itself forming an arch
over the nest in the manner of, yet different from, that of the
Golden-crowned. The nest itself was an exceeding beautiful structure,
four and a half inches in diameter, but only an inch and a half in
depth, being very nearly flat, the cavity only half an inch deep. The
entire base was made of loose hypnum mosses, interspersed with a few
dead leaves and stems. The whole inner structure or lining was made up
of the fruit-stems of the same moss, densely impacted. The outer
circumference was made up of mosses and intertwined small black
vegetable roots.
This nest contained five eggs, the brilliant white ground of which,
with their delicately shaded spots of reddish-brown, contrasted with
the bright green of the mossy exterior, and set off to advantage by
the conspicuous and unique lining, produce a very beautiful effect.
Mr. George A. Boardman of Calais, Me., an observing and accurate
naturalist, has furnished me with the following interesting account of
the habits of this species and its congener, the _aurocapillus_, in a
letter dated St. Stephen, March 23, 1867. “Did you ever notice their
walk on the ground? You know that most of our birds are hoppers. These
two, _S. noveboracensis_ and _S. aurocapillus_, have a beautiful
gliding walk, and of all our other birds I only remember two that are
not hoppers, the _Anthus ludovicianus_ and _Molothrus pecoris_. I do
not think that a naturalist should ever say, as Wilson was constantly
doing, that any bird has no note or song whatever, unless he is well
acquainted with them, at all times, especially while breeding. Many
birds seem really to have nothing to say except when mating. I think
that our little walker, the Water Thrush, has been particularly ill
used by writers in this respect, for I regard him as one of our
liveliest singers. Its note is very high and clear, begins with a
sudden outburst of melody, so as almost to startle you, is very clear
and ringing, as if the bird had just found its mate after a long
absence. It then keeps falling until you can hardly hear it. Its note
is very sweet, and can be heard when you are in a canoe or boat a very
long ways. Like most of our Warblers and Thrushes, when singing, they
do not like intrusion, and it was a long while before I could make out
the bird that uttered these notes. I could only do it by going in a
boat or canoe. They hide in thick trees, over the water, where it is
impossible to walk up to them. I almost always find them on some
island, in a river, that, has been overflowed, and always very near
the water.”
Their eggs vary in length from .81 to .87 of an inch, and in breadth
from .65 to .69. They have an oblong-oval shape, tapering to a point
at one end and rounded at the other. Their ground is a clear
crystal-white, and they are more or less marked with lines, dots, and
dashes of varying shades of umber-brown. These markings are more
numerous around the larger end, and are much larger and bolder in some
than in others, in many being mere points and fine dots, and in such
cases equally distributed over the whole egg. In others a ring of
large confluent blotches is grouped around the larger end, leaving the
rest of the egg nearly unmarked.
Seiurus ludovicianus, BONAP.