50 



THE OOLOGIST 



and about eighteen inches from the 

 ground, constructed wholly of small 

 straws and grass and lined with fine 

 wire grass and a few fibers. The eggs 

 were of a creamy yellow and finely 

 specked around the large end with 

 rich brown. I stood near the nest for 

 several minutes, but no owner ap- 

 peared, so I withdrew about twenty 

 yards and lying down behind a thicl^ 

 bush 1 waited for the owner of the 

 nest. It was fully half an hour beforf 

 a leaf moved just over the nest ano 

 there appeared a bird which I at onc( 

 recognized as one of the Fly-catchers, 

 but was not able to determine just 

 what species. 1 did not collect these 

 eggs, but returned to this spot the fol- 

 lowing day, after 1 had looked up sev- 

 eral references and was able to prop- 

 erly identify the Alder Ply-catcher. 

 Needless to say this set is now a part 

 of my collection. 



By this time it was getting rather 

 late in the afternoon, some heavy 

 clouds had come up and a drizzle of 

 rain began, but I had found the nests 

 of three species which 1 had never 

 collected before and consequently my 

 morale was pretty high and what did 

 a little rain matter. Some ten days 

 previous to this I had found a partly 

 constructed nest at the foot of a bush 

 in a little glade about a half mile 

 farther on, so I decided to continue 

 on to there. Arriving at this location 

 there was a patch of low bushes about 

 three feet high and covering an area 

 of perhaps ten yards square, but 1 

 had forgotten the exact place where 

 the nest had been, so began walking 

 slowly back and forth across the paten, 

 parting the bushes and watching for 

 the bird to flush. The whole area 

 was soon covered, but no bird had 

 been flushed nor could I find the 

 partly built nest. It seemed quite evi- 

 dent that the nest had not been fir 

 ished, but as usual 1 was curious to 

 know just how it had been constructed. 



of what materials and perhaps to 

 learn of what species. I could not 

 get any wetter than 1 was, so down 1 

 went in the wet bushes on all fours 

 and began to search every square foot 

 of the ground, having no idea of find- 

 ing a set of eggs, but only to locate 

 the old nest. After some minutes 

 search it was found. There almost 

 under my hand and just the same 

 color as the wet leaves and grass 

 quietly sat a little sparrow on her nest. 

 Very gently 1 moved my hand over 

 and covered her, then raised her from 

 the nest; she did quite a lot of squeal- 

 ing and biting, but soon settled down. 

 The nest contained four richly spotted 

 eggs, but 1 could not identify the bird. 

 After a very close examination I 

 found her to be a female White- 

 throated Sparrow in immature plum- 

 age; the white throat and crown 

 stripes were practically absent and 

 the only marks of certain identifica- 

 tion were the yellow spots in front of 

 the eyes and the small patch of yel- 

 low on the bend of the wings. This 

 bird was banded with Biological Sur- 

 vey band No. 25327, and released. The 

 nest was in a depression and sunk 

 even with the surface of the ground 

 and at the foot of some small bushes. 

 It was composed of dry grass, dead 

 leaves and bits of moss. Lined with 

 fine wire grass and a few hairs. The 

 four eggs were fresh, in color light 

 greenish blue, heavily blotched with 

 rich red brown. This was my first 

 personally taken set of White-throats, 

 and you may be sure that I prize it 

 highly. 



After carefully packing this set and 

 the nest, it was beginning to get dark 

 and 1 started for home, hungry, wet 

 and tired, but never have I enjoyed a 

 more perfect day. 



Lieut. L. R. Wolfe, 

 26th U. S. Infantry, 

 Plattsburg Barracks, N. Y. 



