224 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Everything combined to make this 

 nest artistic and beautiful. The sur- 

 routidiDgs were pretty and the dainty 

 little nest exactly harmonized with 

 them It is on a little bunch of moss 

 and leaf fibres, which hang from a twig 

 about the size of a slate pencil and the 

 whole is under a mass of bright green 

 foliage. 



The composition of the nest is rather 

 odd, too, I think. The inner portion 

 is soft down from the willow. Then a 

 thick outer coating of dark green moss 

 and finally a maze of Avhite cobwebs 

 which hold the nest tog>3ther and unite 

 it to the twig. 



Two other twice-used nests that I re- 

 call were both found this season, one 

 by a friend and one by myself. These 

 were Costas. The one discovered by 

 me was in a dense cypress grove on a 

 very slender twig, and was entirely re- 

 modelled as were all the preceeding. 

 Fred A. Schneider, 

 College Park, Cal. 



Notes On the Nesting Habits of the Scissor- 



tailed Flycatcher. 



( Mil V ulu^ forjicatus . ) 



Allied to our common Kingbird, this 

 dashing member of our avifauna, has 

 all of their boldness, reckless courage, 

 pugnacity and persistent tenacity and I 

 do not believe that thei'e is another 

 specie whom they would fear to attack. 

 The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is an ele- 

 gant bird, very showy and graceful, 

 which coupled with its large peculiarly 

 shaped tail, which is from 8 10 12 inches 

 in length and shaped somewhat like a 

 pair of sci-ssors, make it one of the most 

 noticeable birds of this locality'. 



The natives know it as the Scissor- 

 tail or Paradise Bird and one young 

 farmer informed me that they were 

 real Bii'ds of Paradise, sure! 



They arrive in this county (McLen- 

 nan) about the first of April. 



My first observations regarding their 



nesting habits were made in '91. On 

 the 31st of May of that year 1 found a 

 nest containing an uncomplete set of 

 three in a small tree in a plum oi'chard 

 about one and a half miles west of 

 Waco. This nest was built about eight 

 feet from the ground. It was then that ^ 

 I noticed its fearless, reckless disposi- 

 tion, as when ascending the tree I was 

 assailed by the pair who flew almost 

 into my face, uttering their peculiar 

 sharp cry and were only driven off af- 

 ter several attempts by my companion 

 of the trip who brandished his buggy 

 whip. 



On the 7th of June of the same sea- 

 son I made another trip and examined 

 many nests containing from. a single to 

 complete sets of fresh eggs, so I judge 

 that the. breeding season extends from 

 the latter part of May to about the 

 middle of July. I made several other 

 trips in June but although I found 

 many nests, fevy contained young. 



I have on\y taken two sets for mj" 

 collection. These ai'e rather smaller on 

 an average than those of the common 

 Kingbird, are white or creamy in color, 

 covered with blotches of rich brown 

 and obscure purple, mostly at the 

 larger end. The eggs of set No. 1 re- 

 semble those of T. tyrannus and the 

 blotches look as though a whitewash 

 brush had been lightly drawn over 

 them. Those of set No. 2 are more 

 rounded and the handsomest eggs of 

 this species I have ever seen, though in 

 the past few years I have examined 

 probably a hundred. 



The blotches are of a rich brown con- 

 centrated in a wreath around the larger 

 end and are especially large in size and 

 few in number. 



I have never yet seen any pure white 

 unmarked specimens, as I have seen 

 noted, these probably being "freaks' 

 something like spotted Robin eggs. 



Mr. Singley of Lee county states that 

 in his county the Scissor-tail nests in 

 ti-ees varying from 6 to 20 feet from the 



