-146 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 



storing cake containing a comparatively large percentage of 

 oil." 



A WOOD-THRUSH NEST IN THE ECONOMIC HOUSE 



Birds not infrequently build nests in the taller trees and 

 shrubs growing within the conservatories at the Garden. 

 There were probably a dozen or more nests in the economic 

 bouse, palm house, and cycad house during the past summer. 

 The following communication from Mr. Otto Widmann is of 

 particular interest, however, since it records the rearing of 

 the young of the wood-thrush, a bird regarded as being 

 unusually shy. in the economic house. 



"Do you know that there is the nest of a wood thrush {Hylocichla 

 muiielina) in the economic house, and that three young ones were 

 successfully feared in the nest, though thousands of visitors must 

 have passed within a few feet of it. The nest is in the triple fork of 

 a candleberry tree, Aleuritcs triloba, twelve feet from the ground, 

 and the only access the birds had to it was through the ventilators 

 kept open in summer. 



"This is a most interesting example of the power of accommoda- 

 tion in birds. In the works of the pioneer ornithologists we find 

 the wood thrush described as a shy woodland bird. Fifty years ago 

 Dr. J. A. Allen referred to several instances 'where the wood thrush 

 did not show itself to be such a recluse as many describe it.' Twenty- 

 five years ago the species had become a common denizen of our parks 

 and suburban gardens, sometimes making its nest within a few yards 

 of occupied houses. At that time and for a number of years a pair 

 of wood thrushes built its nest in one of the lowest branches of two 

 European maples in the Arboretum at its entrance where hundreds 

 of people passed and where many stopped for rest on a bench under 

 the maples. But now in the summer of 1921 we find that a pair had 

 the courage and confidence to enter the Conservatory itself, build its 

 nest in a tropical tree and raise its young undisturbed by the daily 

 work of the attendants and the passing of throngs of visitors. We 

 may expect the birds to return to the same place next summer." 



NOTES 



Mr. G. H. Pring, Horticulturist to the Garden, was re- 

 elected president of the St. Louis Association of Gardeners at 

 its December meeting. 



Mr. G. H. Pring lectured before the St. Louis Aquarium 

 Society, December 13, on "Aquatic Plants, Including Those 

 Adapted to Aquaria." 



