470 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



H. W. Hann (1937) reports that a pair of adult ovenbirds exhibited 

 great concern and were annoyed by two barred owls which were in 

 the vicinity of a nest. An owl feather found near a freshly destroyed 

 nest was evidence of this predator. Mr. Hann also gives an account 

 of the red squirrel in relation to nesting ovenbirds as follows : 



The loss of many eggs and young was attributed to the red squirrel. In a 

 number of cases a part of the contents of a nest disappeared, and later the 

 remainder was takeu at one or more visits. At one nest, three out of four eggs 

 disappeared just before noon, and I decided to watch for the robber to return. 

 I remained until dark, and returned early the next morning. About 6 : 00 a. m. 

 a red squirrel came to the nest, got the remaining egg and started off with it. 

 When I approached, it ran up a tree and ate the egg, holding it in its paws as 

 it ate. At another nest which contained a Cowbird nearly ready to leave, a 

 red squirrel suddenly appeared on a tree, head downward, just above the nest. 

 It hesitated a moment until the cowbird gave the food call, then seized it by 

 the head and ran away with it. Red squirrels evidently discover nests by acci- 

 dent, as they run about looking for food. The Oven-birds often chase them 

 away from the vicinity of nests, or the loss would be greater. 



Mr. Hann also found evidence that gray squirrels and possibly that 

 skunks and raccoons had destroyed nests he had under observation. 



Miss Cordelia Stanwood found a nest of the ovenbird in which one 

 egg had been sucked, and the other was so smeared with the albumen 

 of the first as to be very sticl^y. Several hairs of a weasel glued to the 

 egg gave evidence of the predator. 



There are numerous reports that many ovenbirds are killed by strik- 

 ing lighthouses and towers during their migration. The light keeper 

 at Fowey Kocks, Fla., reported to W. W. Cooke (1904) that he could 

 have filled a mail bag with ovenbirds that struck the lighthouse on 

 October 10 and 11, 1891. 



Harold S. Peters (193G) has found five species of external para- 

 sites infesting the bodies and plumage of ovenbirds as follows : two 

 lice, Menacanthus chrysophaeum (Kellogg) and Myrsidea incerta 

 (Kellogg) ; two ticks, Haemaphysalis leporispalustris Packard and 

 Ixodes brunneus Koch; and the mite Liponyssus sylviarum (Canes- 

 trini and Fauzago). 



Since the ovenbird is a bird of the forests and builds a nest covered 

 over and well concealed, it would not be expected to be greatly molested 

 by the cowbird, yet it is quite commonly parasitized in certain sec- 

 tions of its range. In Iowa, Lynds Jones (1888) states that every 

 nest of the ovenbird he found at Grinnell contained two or more 

 cowbird's eggs. Isaac E. Hess (1910) found an ovenbird's nest in 

 central Illinois with seven eggs of the cowbird and none of the right- 

 ful owner. J. P. Norris (1892) in a series of 40 nests taken in the east 

 chiefly from Maine to North Carolina reported 4 nests, 3 from Penn- 

 sylvania and 1 from Connecticut, which contained cowbird's eggs. 



