1908] Some Bird Habits. 155 



At one of the Ottawa Field -Naturalists' Club excursions 

 last spring, at which. I had the pleasure of speaking, I made the 

 rather loose statement that the American Cuckoos differed 

 from the European species in that they reared their own young. 

 While this is. generally speaking, true, the habit — ^as pointed out 

 by Mr. Halkett*- — is not quite so distinctive as my remarks 

 might lead one to imagine. I have never personally found 

 American Cuckoo eggs in the nests of other birds, though, I 

 believe, there are records of such having been found. I have, 

 however, on several occasions discovered more than the usual 

 number of eggs in a nest, and in one instance found ten under 

 one bird, which would indicate that at least three birds were 

 responsible for them. Unfortunately the eggs were abandoned 

 and consequently never hatched. There are also, I believe, 

 instances on record of the European Cuckoo rearing its own 

 young. 



Writing of Cuckoos, brings me to a doubtful case of the 

 same habit practised by the Red winged Blackbird. The usual 

 number of eggs is four or five, but on several occasions I have 

 found nests containing six or eight, and once nine, which leads 

 me to the belief that these might be from more than one bird. 

 I am also suspicious as to whether the birds are not somewhat 

 sociable in their nest-building operations. That is, whether more 

 than one bird engages in building one nest. But this subject 

 must be dropped for the present as not proven. I have intro- 

 duced it in the hope that others might be able to throw light 

 upon the matter. 



The Mourning Dove has increased very largely within the 

 last twenty years and in some respects is taking the place of 

 the once abundant Passenger Pigeon, which it somewhat re- 

 sembles in coloured markings. It seems well adapted to the 

 changed conditions brought about by the ploughing up of the 

 country. It delights to feed upon stubble fields or on waste land 

 where weed seeds are plentiful, and seems rather partial to 

 Green Foxtail {Setaria viridis), also not taking aniiss to a good 

 feed of wheat when opportunity offers. These birds often con- 

 gregate in small flocks, sometimes several hundred being seen 

 together, but they nest in solitary pairs. They are very fond of 

 salt, like the domestic pigeon, and- if they ever become too 

 numerous could probably be captured by using salt as a bait. 

 On examining the nests of doves at different times of the year, 

 I have noticed the ratlier interesting fact that the nests are 



*Ott;awa Naturalist, Aug. 1"^)08, page 95. 



