The ooL06idt 



141 



Richard C. Harlow, formerly of 

 State College, Pennsylvania, whom 

 we personally regard as the best field 

 oologist in the United States at this 

 time, together with George H. Stuart 

 III, and Fletcher Street, of Pitts- 

 burgh, spent twelve davs during the 

 pa-t spring collecting season at Bel- 

 videre, Alberta, exploiting the ooI^.T' 

 o" th-it territor". During which time 

 n ne~t of the Lorn and sets of Ye'l' •- 

 'c--. D 'fialo-hc-id Duck, Solitary 

 ""T-'^'ijer, Grinuell's Water Thrush, 

 Cnnada Grouse, Palm Warbler, Con- 

 ■-'^rt:c"t Warbler, Nelson's Sparrow, 

 Td ether rare rpecies v.^ere taken. 

 — R. M. B. 



CHriCKMATING THE PARASITE 



(From "The Oologist") 

 The writer has become mightily in- 

 terested in the profoundly-comnlicat- 

 p'' phenomena of Parasitism. It has 

 filled me with amazement to find, on 

 roinri through the 5,000 pages of my 

 '^"n'Tcript en the "Nesting Ways of 

 "•'rrth American Birds," that no less 

 than two hundred North American 

 n-^cie^ of birds are more or less par- 

 asitic, — (most of them, of course 

 less so). Equally of course, there are 

 quite a number of species that are 

 mutually parasitic, e. g., the Cuckoos 

 and the Brewer Blackbird. Of all the 

 '■pecies that are frequent hosts of the 

 Cowbird, I know of but a half-dozen, 

 or fewer, that have caught the trick 

 of embedding the intruded egg, or 

 eggs. These are, — ^the Yellow Warb- 

 Jer, — pre-eminently, — the American 

 Goldfinch, — ^just once, In my own ex- 

 perience; the Bell Vireo, — ^also just 

 once; — and, there are others. Two 

 birds with which I am familiar, nest- 

 ing on the ground, have the more-or- 

 less fixed habit of ejecting the ob- 

 noxious intrusion. These are, the 

 Song Sparrow and the Bobolink; and 

 I have fine negatives to prove it. 

 p. B. Peabody. 



KILDEER IN OHIO 



May 21, 1922, I found four eggs of 

 the Kildeer on a new Blue Limestone 

 road near Dixon, Van Wert County, 

 Ohio. The eg.p-s lay in a slight de- 

 pression near the barn. There were 

 no weed" to shade cr conceal the 

 eggs, which were quite conspicuov. 

 an-.-^nrr t the bl;^e lin^O'tone. 



The sitting bird flushed v.'hen niv 

 hor e trrned rlifhtlv froia the cen- 

 ter of the read. The road v/as a 

 rai'.ch traveled on'^, and I was rvr- 

 pri:ed that the e^-g; had net been 

 broken. 



May 27, 1923, I fo"nd another no t 

 rf the Kildeer near the Mercer Coun- 

 ty Reservoir, at Celma, Ohio. The 

 four eggs were in a slight depression 

 in the cinders and gravel between 

 the rAil3 and ties of an old railroad 

 spir vrhich appeared to be seldom 

 11.^ ed. The shells were chipped and 

 the young were "cheeping" in ide. 

 Beth birds vrere reen nearby. 



During the month of May 1922, I 

 fluEhed an adult Woodcock, in a small 

 V et woods, southwest of Payne, Ohio. 

 I was surprised to see her (?) car- 

 r ing between her feet and legs one 

 of the young which appeared to be 

 f ^lly two4hirds grown. She flew 

 very .^lowly and with the greatest 

 cifTiculty, rising not more than six 

 feet above the ground, and flying 

 about fifty feet before she settled in 

 the brush and weeds. The young bird 

 struggled a great deal and both birds 

 scolded, chattered and remonstrated. 

 The other three young flew up and 

 alighted in the brush and weeds a 

 short distance away. I was unable to 

 find any of the birds after they had 

 alighted. 



Hooner F. Pierce, 

 Payne, Ohio. 



