All communications for this department 

 should be sent to the Department Editor, 

 Mr. Harry G. Higbee, 13 Austin Street, 

 Hyde Park, Massashusetts. Items, articles 

 and photographs in this department not 

 otherwise credited are by the Department 

 Editor. 



Some Late Nesting Dates. 



During the past season there have 

 come under the writer's observation 

 several instances of late bird nesting 

 which have seemed rather unusual for 

 their particular localities. 



NEST AND EGGS OF SONG SPARROW AT 

 TYNGSBORO, MASSACHUSETTS. 



At Hyde Park, Massachusetts, on 

 the twenty-ninth of June, the nest of 

 a red-eyed vireo was found about ten 

 feet up in an apple tree. This was an 

 unusually deep and well made nest, 

 and contained four eggs, apparently 

 fresh. The mother bird remained upon 

 her eggs while the tree was being 

 sprayed, and did not leave until, in a 

 later examination with the aid of a 

 stepladder, I drew the nest within a 

 foot of my head and looked down upon 

 her. 



In the same yard with the above, and 

 on the same date, a song sparrow's 

 nest containing four fresh eggs was 

 noted, this being quite unusual in both 

 its location and the lateness of the 

 nesting period. The nest was four to 

 five feet from the ground in a small 

 spruce tree. It was composed of dried 

 grasses and a few leaves, was deeply 

 hollowed and lined with horsehair. 

 With its four brown-spotted, bluish- 

 white eggs, and in its dark green set- 

 ting of the feathery spruce, this nest 

 presented a beautiful picture, and one 

 quite different in its surroundings from 

 the usual song sparrow nest, which we 

 ordinarily find placed upon the ground 

 in a swamp, either in a tuft of long 

 grass or some similar place where it is 

 well concealed. On the following day 

 this nest was found to contain five 

 eggs, which showed the complement 

 to be completed on that date, the thir- 

 tieth of June. It was not visited 



again. 



At Nashua, New Hampshire, along 

 the Nashua River, a kingbird's nest 

 was found containing young on the 

 first day of .August. An examination 

 of this nest on the eighth instant 

 showed it to be empty, the birds prob- 

 ably having developed and flown. A 

 Wilson's thrush nest and three eggs 

 were also found here on the latter date. 



At Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, on the 

 same date, the song sparrow's nest here 

 illustrated was found concealed in the 

 grass along the high bank of the Mer- 

 rimack River, within a few yards of the 

 bordering boulevard. There were three 

 eggs in this nest, which was nearly 

 stepped upon before the bird was 

 flushed, and by the actions of the 

 mother bird , which hovered excitedly 

 about while we photographed the nest, 

 we presumed the eggs to be partly in- 

 cubated. The structure was typical, 

 being composed entirely of grass, and 

 the small number of eggs in the comple- 



