26 



Bird - Lore 



•other words, only about 64 per cent of the 

 ■eggs laid produced young which matured 

 suflSciently to leave the rookeries. 



Much of this destruction of bird-life 

 could probably be prevented, especially 

 on the low-lying islands of the southern 

 coasts, by the construction of sea walls, 

 either of stone or low piling, to check the 

 force of the waves and prevent them from 

 running far up the sloping shores. This 

 experiment is now being tried on one of 

 the North Carolina islands. — -T. Gil- 

 bert Pearson, Greensboro, N. C. 



Hummingbird Notes 



On June 4, 1907, a female Humming- 

 Taird had been seen often around a larch 

 near the house, and on this day the nest 

 was started — a tuft of yellowish down on 

 a twig about fourteen feet from the 

 ground. At 9.30 the next morning, after 

 an hour or more of feeding and playing 

 with her mate around the weigela bushes, 

 she was hard at work again. When it was 

 possible to follow her flight, the particles 

 of down, cobweb, etc., forming the body 

 of the nest, seemed to be collected from 

 among the young leaves of near-by trees, 

 especially the elms; when after the scraps 

 ■of lichen and moss she was more easily 

 watched, for, darting over to an elm or 

 chestnut, she flew up and down and around 

 the trunk, here and there standing still in 

 the air as she picked off some tiny bit, 

 then back to the larch, alighting directly 

 in the nest. It was most interesting to 

 watch the bird at work; she paid no atten- 

 tion to me, though I stood so near that 

 no opera glass was necessary save when 

 trying to name some piece of building 

 material. Flying directly on to the nest, 

 she would reach over, place her scrap of 

 lichen and give a touch here and there, or 

 if it were down, fix that on the upper edge, 

 pressing and shaping the nest with that 

 tiny body; then in another instant she 

 was off like a winged bullet. She lost but 

 little time during working hours; in one- 

 half hour she made thirty-one trips, the 

 the busiest five minutes of that period 

 including ten trips. Usually she brought 



down for several trips, then several pieces 

 of lichen to bring the outer covering 

 nearly to the top of the down. Yet several 

 times she returned with nothing visible 

 in her bill, but, after sitting in place a mo- 

 ment, reached over and worked a little with 

 the lichens: is saliva used to aid in fasten- 

 ing these? During afternoon, the bird 

 seemed to do little if any work, though 

 sometimes seen perching near. Through- 

 out, the male showed no interest in the 

 work, and I seldom saw him near the tree. 

 By the 8th the nest looked compete, 

 but the bird was still adding down to the 

 upper edge and constantly shaping it. 

 June 13, sitting had begun, but — the twig 

 was dead, the wind high, and six days 

 later nest and a broken egg lay under the 

 tree. — Isabel McC. Lemmon, Engle- 

 uwod. N. J. 



Nest of Wood Thrush into Which a Cow- 

 bird Had Deposited Five Eggs 



The nest which is the subject of the 

 accompanying photograph was discovered 

 in the crotch of a leaning box elder sap- 

 ling, seven or eight feet up. When dis- 

 covered it contained one egg of the Wood 

 Thrush and one of the Cowbird. 



The following day it was found that the 

 Wood Thrush had laid another egg, and 

 that there were three Cowbird's eggs 

 instead of one there, which proved to me 

 that there were at least two Cowbirds 

 using the nest instead of one, for two Cow- 

 bird's eggs had been deposited in less than 

 twenty-four hours. 



I removed the Cowbird's eggs after 

 photographing the nest. This was done on 

 June 5. On the 13th another Cowbird's 

 egg was found in the nest, but there had 

 been no change in the number of the 

 Thrush's eggs. 



On the 20th the nest was again visited 

 and one young Thrush was found, appar- 

 ently two days old, but no traces of the 

 other two eggs were seen. On the 25th 

 the nest was again visited and another 

 Cowbird's egg was removed. On July 

 I, both mother and nestling left the nest 

 permanently. 



In all probability, if the Cowbird's eggs — 



