Notes from Field and Study 



213 



After giving his mate all that he may have 

 in hand, so to speak, he suddenly will turn 

 away, hop off to another branch in the tree, 

 with Mrs. Finch after him in close pursuit and 

 most insistent for further feedings. But he 

 still moves away and then will fly from the 

 tree most peremptorily. Sometimes Lady 

 Finch pursues him for a distance; at other 

 times, perhaps thinking of her nest and the 

 unborn babes she must guard, she desists 

 from pursuing her master and hops on to the 

 nest, wiggling her body from side to side as 

 she brings her wings closer to her side in the 

 act of hovering — precisely after the manner 

 of an old sitting motherly 'Biddy'! — Henry 

 H. Covell, Minncwdska, Ulster Co., N. Y. 



A Junco Wave 



Leaving the house at 4 o'clock Monday 

 morning, April 3, 1922, to catch an early 

 train, I noticed many small birds sitting on 

 the ground and in the street, which would 

 flutter up just from under my feet and alight 

 a few yards beyond. It being too dark to 

 discern them sufficiently to identify, I passed 

 on, wondering at their numbers and at their 

 being on the ground. On my return at the 

 end of the week, a number of people spoke 

 to me of the occurrences of that Monday 

 morning. The birds were Slate-colored 

 Juncos, and when people woke up in the 

 morning, the town was full of the birds, all 

 sitting stupidly on the ground until nearly 

 trodden on. Quite a number were picked up, 

 seemingly inert, but the moment they were 

 handled, they cried out and viciously at- 

 tacked the hand of the person who held 

 them. A local butcher left the transom of his 

 shop open Sunday night, and in the morning 

 there were about forty of the birds in the 

 place. It had drizzled rain all night, and 

 could it be that the birds were so drenched 

 and 'fagged' out that they could not fly? For, 

 as the morning cleared and the sun came out, 

 they soon found their place in the trees. 



There has been a dearth of Juncos all 

 winter in this section of Iowa, and different 

 ornithological friends of mine from over the 

 State report the same for their vicinities. Out 

 of curiosity I wrote to a number of individuals 

 n the southern part of the United States 



who had reported the Juncos in large num- 

 bers in the Christmas census, and they in- 

 formed me that there had been an unusually 

 large number of Juncos in the South the 

 past winter. I know of no reason for the 

 scarcity except that during the early part of 

 the growing season in 1921 we had a period 

 of drought which might have curtailed the 

 production of weed seed and thus deprived 

 them of food. — Charles J. Spiker, New 

 Hampton, Iowa. 



Cardinals Nesting in Collins, N. Y. 



I wish to report the nesting of the Cardinal 

 Crosbeak in Collins, Erie County. I have a 

 nest under observation, the earlier one 

 having been robbed. 



Since May 5, 191 3, there have been Car- 

 dinals on the Cattaraugus Indian Reserva- 

 tion, but this is the first time I have found 

 them nesting. The first nest was built May 

 7, the second begun May 15, in the woods of 

 the Gowanda Hospital. 



The Alder Flycatcher continues to breed 

 in this vicinity. Two or three pairs are in 

 close walking distance, but the only nest I 

 have found was June 13, 1917. — Anne E. 

 Perkins, M.D., Collins, N. Y. 



A Two-Story Nest 



I sat one day in a grove on a side hill 

 watching a little Yellow Warbler in great 

 trouble. Ten feet from me was a bush in 

 which her dainty felted nest was placed. 

 She had laid one exquisite white, brown- 

 spotted egg; but while she had been absent 

 feeding, and doubtless rejoicing with her 

 mate over their new home and prospective 

 family, a black bird many times her size that 

 had been watching her movements from a 

 nearby tree, slipped into her nest and de- 

 posited her own larger and sinister looking 

 egg — a dusky egg, heavily and irregularly 

 spotted with dark brown. 



The interloper was the detested Cowbird. 

 These birds are innocent looking enough, 

 about the size of the common Red-winged 

 Blackbird, but they build no nests of their 

 own. They may be seen any summer day 

 following close behind cattle and horses 



