Dec. 1888.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



179 



Myiodiocles mitratus. Hooded Warbler, 

 fifteen sets of four, one set of Ihii'C. Total : 

 sixteen sets. 



MijkidiocU'S pusillus pileolatiis. Pileolated 

 Warbler. One set of four, one set of three. 

 Total : two sets. 



Mijiitdioctes canadensis. Canada Klyratching 

 Warbler. One set of five. 



Se.tojthaya rutkilla. Amerk-an licdstart. 

 One set of live, nineteen sets of four, four sets 

 of three. Total : twenty-four sets. 



Kecapitulatiox : Total number of sets : 

 four hundred and seventy-one. Total number 

 of eggs : 192G. 



Ornithological Reminiscences. 



ARTHUR H. HOWELL. 



Mr. Langille has truthfully said, "To the 

 student of nature, the identifieation of even the 

 most established facts is ever a fresh surprise. 

 No matter how fully Wilson, Audubon, or the 

 more recent ornithologists may have reported 

 our birds, my acquaintance with each species 

 has'been almost as delightful a novelty as if I 

 had been the first to discover and describe it." 



Though as yet only a young ornithologist, I 

 have spent many a pleasant hour with "our 

 birds in their haunts," and a few reminiscences 

 of my ac(iuaititance with some of them may be 

 of interest. 



One which has puzzled me some, interested 

 me exceedingly, and now that I know his 

 character, has become one of my favorites, is 

 the White-eyed Vireo. Jumping about in a 

 swamp near Canarsie, L. I., in 1887, we were 

 tinding Yellow Warbler's nests in profusion. 

 My companion noticed (as we supposed) one 

 near the 'ground and pensile, but which, on 

 looking in for him, 1 found was no Warbler's 

 nest at all, for it contained one pure white egg, 

 spotted sparingly with black. 



The owner soon appeared, scolding vehement- 

 ly, hut having no gun, we failed to identify it. 

 Visiiingthe spot a few days later, (May 2.5) my 

 friend took the nest with a set of four eggs, and 

 obtained a better view of the bird, but not 

 being accpiainted with the species, we were in 

 doubt as to its identity. Of course we knew it 

 was a Vireo and were inclined to label it as tlu; 

 Blue-headed (V. solitarius). 



In the summer of the same year, at Lake 

 Grove, in the middle of the Island, I found the 

 species (known by its song and general appear- 

 ance) to be abundant and very familiar, leaving 

 the swamps and thickets, and coming even into 



the door yard to deliver his song. I shot one 

 which had the markings of the White-eyed, but 

 a slate-colored iris. This puzzled me still more, 

 and it was not until this spring (1888) wJien I 

 shot a typical White-eye and found a nest which 

 I identified fully, that I concluded that the 

 species was Vireo novehoraccnsis. 



The nests were almost precisely alike in 

 structure and poition, except that one was in 

 a swamp and the other on high ground — in a 

 catbrier hedge along the side of a public road, 

 hung pensile, three feet from the ground, 

 woven on to a horizontal fork of a small twig, 

 they are made of shreds of bark and a few very 

 fine straws, held together in the former case by 

 red and white down (from the swamp) and in 

 the latter case by green moss and spider's nests. 

 Each was lined with a few horsehairs. The 

 shreds of bark, which hang loosely on tlie out- 

 side, give them a whitish and rough appear- 

 ance, (juite diti'erent from the compact, reddish- 

 colored nest of the Red-eye. 



But that which pre-eminently distinguishes 

 this species, is its song, so wholly dift'erent from 

 that of any of the rest of its family, that one 

 would never suspect the relationship. 



It is usually translated as chick-a-re'r-chick," 

 but is subject to nmch variation. I should 

 write it, " ch-baa'-ch-re-chick," and I have 

 heard it with three notes added, like " chu-chu- 

 chu," in a so much lower and difl'erent tone 

 that I could hardly believe it came from the 

 same bird, only it followed the song instantly — 

 in the same breatli. 



Probably every naturalist has experienced to 

 some extent the wonderful effect which the 

 songs of certain birds have on the mind of the 

 hearer. Thus a certain note of the songster 

 now under consideration — " elieep-chu-twenty" 

 — the last syllable delivered with a peculiar 

 slide, has a most pleasing and enlivening effect 

 on my mind. If I am dull it brightens me up, 

 if I feel a little lazy, it tells me to get up and go 

 to work, and every time I hear it, a streak of 

 mirth comes over me, and I feel like repeating 

 it after him, to let him know I fiear and ap- 

 preciate his eflbrt. 



Besides his own unique and pleasing powers 

 of song, this Vireo is a most vvonilertui mimic. 

 Several times have I been deceived by him, 

 thinking a certain tree contained several 

 different members of the feathered tribe, all 

 delivering their notes or songs at once, but I 

 failed to discover anything but a little White- 

 eyed Vireo. In one instance, I distinguished 

 in this rapidly uttered medley the notes of 

 seven of his associates. The " meow" of the 



