THE OO'.OGIST 



135 



discovery of a Brown Thrasher's nest 

 on the ground. I have found several 

 such situated nests and all in well 

 wooded country where bushes, briers 

 and brambles abounded. The last one 

 found, however, is worthy of remark 

 for several reasons. 



It was found on June 17, 1910, at 

 Blue Grass, Philadelphia County, Penn- 

 sylvania, and contained four half-grown 

 young birds, though I first discovered 

 the site on May 15th, but couldn't then 

 guess what kind of a nest it was going 

 to be. It was placed in a depression 

 two inches deep in the ground in a 

 bunch of Silidago weeds two feet high 

 and a foot thick, beside a thin clus- 

 ter of black alder bushes three feet 

 high, in a field, close to an alder thick- 

 et, and within thirty feet of a rail- 

 road. On June 25th, the nest was 

 ■empty. It was made of daisy stalks, 

 grass stems and some dry leaves and 

 seed strips, lined with grass stems 

 and vine tendrils, loosely constructed 

 and is one of the very few Thrasher's 

 nests I have ever seen without a foun- 

 dation of twigs or sticks. It is the 

 only ground nest of Toxastana rufum 

 I have ever found not under a clump 

 of bushes or briers. Its situ resem- 

 bled a Chewink's more than a Thrash- 

 er's and it also looked like a Towhee's 

 nest. 



R. F. MILLER. 



Notes on the Night Hawk. 

 On July 24th while walking through 

 a corn field, I flushed the mother bird 

 from the nest. She went through the 

 usual antics trying to draw me away 

 from her eggs. I took a photo of the 

 eggs in situ, and came back the next 

 day and secured two negatives of the 

 mother bird on the nest. I did not 

 get to see the nest again until August 

 Sth, making two weeks' absence. 

 Found the two young birds as shown 



in photo. Owing to very hot weather, 

 the small birds seemed to be suffering 

 from the heat. The ground being very 

 hot, and as the nest was in quite an 

 opening, corn stalks did not make 

 much shelter. Quite a few weeds had 

 grown up since the picture was made 

 of the mother birds. I tried to get a 

 negative of her fluttering along the 

 ground, but found it a very difficult 

 matter. 



I nearly always find them nesting 

 on side hills in this locality, this being 

 the first I have found nesting in a gar- 

 den. HEXRY J. RUST. 



Winter Months. 



The long winter evenings are with 

 us. This is no reason why the woods 

 do not at this time of year contain 

 much that is interesting and instruc- 

 tive to the ornithologist. 



Our resident birds can now be seen 

 contending with the rigors of the ele- 

 ments. The great numbers of winter 

 visitants from the far Northern climes 

 furnish a new source of investigation. 

 Many new records and observations 

 will come under the eye of the natur- 

 alist who spends a few days in the 

 field or timber during the coming win- 

 ter. 



The evenings can be well spent in 

 re-arranging, straightening up and 

 classifying the collection, closing up 

 old accounts and making new ex- 

 changes and visiting with the speci- 

 mens in the cabinet as you live over 

 the hours and days of the past in 

 which you got them. 



