Ridgway on Birds observed at Mount Carmel. 165 



Eremophila alpestris. Horxed Lark. — Abundant in suitable local- 

 ities. Found mostly on commons and about fallow fields. 



Cyanocitta cristata. Blue Jay. — One of tbe most numerous and 

 generally distributed of all birds ; also probably tbe least wary. As an 

 evidence of these facts, it may be mentioned that the writer killed live 

 Blue Jays in two successive shots, without the expectation of killing more 

 than one at either time. 



Myiarchus crinitus. Great-crested Flycatcher. — The most 

 abundant of the Flycatchers, and quite familiar, often breeding in boxes 

 put up for the Martins and Bluebirds. 



Antrostomus carolinensis. Chuck-will's-widow. — A single speci- 

 men seen flying with some Night Hawks (Chordeiles popetue) late one 

 evening, about the 20th of April. It is not an uncommon species, its 

 notes being frequently heard. Strange to say, however, neither this spe- 

 cies nor the Whippoorwill was once heard during our visit of six weeks' 

 duration. 



Coccyzus americanus. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. — Extremely 

 abundant, it being not unusual to hear the notes of half a dozen or more 

 at the same time. Outnumbers C. erythrophthalmus in the proportion of 

 about ten to one. Eggs of both species were found in the same nest ! 



Melanerpes erythrocephalus. Red-headed Woodpecker. — Ex- 

 ceedingly abundant and very tame. By far the most numerous species 

 of the family. 



Falco communis naevius. Duck Hawk. — This is by no means a 

 rare bird in the heavy timber of the river bottoms. Three nests were found 

 in the immediate vicinity of the town, and no doubt more could have been 

 found in localities not explored. All were placed in cavities in the top 

 of very large sycamore-trees, and were inaccessible. One of these trees 

 was felled, however, the peculiar character of the base and decided inclina- 

 tion of the trunk from the perpendicular rendering this a comparatively 

 easy mutter. The swollen base of this tree was twenty-six feet in circum- 

 ference, the cylindrical portion of the trunk itself, some seven feet above, 

 being sixteen and one half feet around. The base was hollow, and had 

 been reduced by fire to an average thickness of less than a foot, while the 

 axis of the tree leaned some thirty degrees from the perpendicular. It 

 therefore required only the severing of the wall on the side of tension, for 

 a distance of four or five feet, to destroy the equilibrium of the tree, 

 which soon came down with a terrific crash. Measurements with a tape- 

 line showed the nest to have been eighty-nine feet from the ground, its 

 location being a shallow cavity, caused by the breaking off of the main 

 limb, the upper part of which projected over sufficiently to form a pro- 

 tection from the sun and rain. This limb was four feet in diameter ; the 

 total height of the tree, although the whole top had been blasted by 

 storms, was one hundred and fifteen feet, so that its original height must 



