76 



County in 185!*. A nt-ighljor of mine m;ii<es ;i similar statement. Another person 

 says they were still found in Knox Connty and Daviess County in 1857— ')8. They 

 say they Hew in flocks arranged along two sides of a triangle after the manner 

 of wild geese. They built their nests and roosted in woodpecker's holes or hollow 

 trees. When roosting, it is claimed they hung suspended by their bills. They 

 laid but two eggs. They remained about rivers, swamps and ponds. They lived 

 almost entirely on cuckle-cockle burrs. One man said they would pile the burrs 

 upon stumps, and after hulling out the kernel leave the empty burrs in a pile. 

 They visited the orchards and did not injure the fruit trees as i)adly as generally 

 claimed. (Chansler. ) Mr. E. R. (^uick informs me that Mrs. Laforge, an old 

 lady who recently died, told him that she knew the paraquets quite well in Frank- 

 lin County. She referred to the habit which she said was common, of splitting 

 ttpen apples with their bills in order to get the seeds for food, discarding the re- 

 mainder of the fruit. 



12. CisfolhoruK stellari'^ (Licht. ). Short-tailed marsh wren. 



.July 24, 1894, Mr. Alexander Black obtained two of these birds from the 

 reedy shore of the mill pond near Greencastle, which has become noted for tlie 

 rare forms along its banks. He suspected a nest was hidden among the reeds. 

 Next morning he continued his search and found the nest. This is the third 

 breeding record for our state. 



l.S. Porzana jamaicensh (Gmel.). Black rail. 



•July 27, 1894, .Jesse Earle and Alexander Beach identified the black rail 

 -among the saw-grass about the "mill pond," Putnam County, Ind. It ran, but 

 •could not be induced to take wing, and finally hid. .July 28, the bird was again 

 seen, but could not be flushed. Although searched for, it could not be found until 

 -July 31. Then by the aid of a pointer dog it was flushed, but not shot. August 

 1, the dog caught a bird which proved to be a young black rail, too small to fly. 

 <]ontinuing the search an adult of the same species was flushed and secured. It 

 was a male. This is the second account of its occurrence in the state, and tiie 

 first account of its breeding. The same day a Virginia rail was caught, the first 

 for that county. 



14. Xanlhocephahis .ranthocephalus (Bp.). Yellow-headed blackbird. 

 Elkhart County, reported by Chancey .Juday, from Millersburg. 



15. Spizella pallida {fiv,\). Clay-colored sparrow. 



V Several specimens taken by I^. Whitney Watkins, September 3, 1894, at 

 Manchester, Mich. Tliere were about forty seen. But two former occurrences 

 in that state arc recorded. In Indiana it ha^ been taken but once, September 

 "27, 1890, at 'W'vrv Haute. Ind., liy Professor W. S. Hlatchlcy and rejiortcd i)y iiiiii 

 ^at the meeting of this Academv in ISHO. 



