Seiurus noveboracensis,
Nutt.
2434
Autumnal specimens have a more or less strong wash of ochraceous over the flanks and crissum, and the brown above rather darker and less grayish than in spring birds.
This species is very similar to S. noveboracensis, although readily distinguishable by the characters given in the diagnoses. The differences in the bill there referred to are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.
Habits. The Water Thrush described by Wilson as most abundant in the lower part of the Mississippi Valley, as well as that given by Audubon as the Louisiana Water Thrush, though its position as a genuine species was afterwards abandoned, are undoubtedly referable to a closely allied but apparently
distinct Seiurus, now known as the Louisiana Water Thrush. This bird has a very close resemblance to the noveboracensis, differing chiefly in size and in having a larger bill. Although its distribution is not yet fully determined, it seems to belong rather to the South and Southwestern States, and only accidentally to be found north of the Middle States. Still a single specimen has been obtained in Massachusetts, and it has been several times found in Michigan and Missouri. Specimens of this bird have also been procured in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tamaulipas, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, and Guatemala.
Its recognition as a distinct species from the common Water Thrush is so recent, and the two species so closely resemble each other, that as yet its habits and history are imperfectly known. Wilson refers to the birds he had met with in Mississippi and Louisiana, which we presume to have been the same, as being there in abundance, and eminently distinguished by the loudness, sweetness, and expressive vivacity of their notes. These he describes as beginning very high and clear, and as falling with an almost imperceptible gradation until they are scarcely articulated,—a description that would also answer very well for the song of the true Water Thrush. During their song, he adds, they are perched on the middle branches of a tree over the brook or river-bank, pouring out a charming melody, so loud and distinct that it may be heard at the distance of nearly half a mile. The voice of this bird appeared to him so exquisitely sweet and expressive that he was never tired of listening to it.
It is also quite probable that nearly all of Audubon’s accounts of the habits of the Water Thrush were derived from his observation of this species, and not of its Northern congener. He describes its song as fully equal to that of the Nightingale, its notes as powerful and mellow, and at times as varied. He states that it is to be found at all seasons in the deepest and most swampy of the canebrakes of Mississippi and Louisiana. Its song is to be heard even in the winter, when the weather is calm and warm.
He describes its flight as easy and continued, just above the brakes, or close to the ground. When on the ground, it is continually vibrating its body, jerking out its tail and then closing it again. It walks gracefully along the branches or on the ground, but never hops. He states that it feeds on insects and their larvæ, and often pursues the former on the wing.
He describes the nest as placed at the foot and among the roots of a tree, or by the side of a decayed log, and says they are often easily discovered. They are commenced the first week of April. The outer portions are formed of dry leaves and mosses, the inner of fine grasses, with a few hairs or the dry fibres of the Spanish moss.