The Audubon Societies 



307 



♦Saskatchewan is sometimes spelled Saskatchawan. Which form is correct- 



Name your authoritv 

 A. H. \V. ■ 



FROM YOUNG OBSERVERS 

 Bird Notes from the Minnesota State Training School for Boys 



Last May, while watching some Tennessee Warblers that were picking 

 worms from under the curled up leaves of a snowball bush across the drive- 

 way, we were startled by a bird dashing against the window-pane and then 

 either dropping to the ground or flying away. We wondered what could ha^•l• 

 been the cause of his reckless flight, but were more interested just then in 

 the Tennessee Warblers than in the bird that had met with disaster. 



On turning again to the bush to watch the Warblers, we noticed a female 

 Baltimore Oriole which was calling in a low, sweet voice from the snowball 

 bush, a sort of a crooning call, never heard from an Oriole until now, and at 

 first we did not realize that it was the Oriole calling. Remembering the bird 

 that struck the window-pane, we stepped out-of-doors, and there, beneath 

 the window, was the male Oriole, dead. 



One beautiful day in June, we noticed a Uttle performance which proved 

 that the Kingbird is either a tyrant as his name (Tyrannus tyranniis) implies, 

 or else he is mischievous and likes to tease. 



We were seated on one of the steps leading down to a stretch of sand along 

 the banks of the Mississippi River. Just at the foot of the flight of stairs is an 

 old scrub oak, and close beside this a basswood tree. 



At the end of one of the branches of the scrub oak was a clump of foliage 

 and a network of small branches that made an ideal spot for a nest. A Cedar 

 Waxwing had evidently seen the advantages of the location for ends of twine 

 were hanging from the branches, and, as we looked, a Waxwing appeared in 

 sight and seized one end of the string. Just then a Kingbird swooped down 

 from some elevation back of us, and the Waxwing, in a dignified manner, 

 retreated to the dense foliage lower down the tree, and remained there. The 



