THE OOLOGIST 



29- 



thrown together that a nest as a whole 

 could not be lifted from the ground. 



It view of the rapid degeneration in 

 the art of nest building, it would be in- 

 teresting to note the architecture and 

 composition of the third or fourth nests 

 of a season. 



The eggs of the Prairie Horned Lark 

 are three or four in number— usually 

 four. The sizes vary greatly, in a ser- 

 ies of sets, as will be seen by the follow- 

 ing measurements of three sets of my 

 collecting: 64x85, 65x86, 63x81, 58x84; 

 62x76, 62x77, 63x76, 63x78; 69x92, 68x91, 

 70x91. 



The eggs are wholly unlike those of 

 our other birds, and once seen will nev- 

 er be confounded with the eggs of other 

 species. 



The color may be described as green- 

 ish-gray. The markings are tiny and 

 so thickly sprinkled over the entire sur- 

 face, as to wholly obscure the ground 

 color. In some sets a wreath is found 

 encircling the larger end, which gradu- 

 ally shades into a darker hue. 



A noteworthy characteirstic of the 

 species, is the frequency with which an 

 abnormally marked egg occurs, in a 

 series of sets. This characteristic may 

 however, be only local, as I have never 

 seem this feature mentioned, regarding 

 this particular bird. The most inter- 

 esting deviation I have yet noted ap- 

 pears in a set, now in the collection of 

 Mr. C. H. Morrell. 



An abnormal egg in this set presents 

 so entirely a different shade of coloi'a- 

 tion that it does not appear to belong 

 to the set. Isaac E. Hess, 



Philo, Illinois. 



The Summer Home of Vireo Solitarius 

 Cassini and Other Notes. 



On June 9th of the past year I left 

 camp early in the morning and follow- 

 ed a path along a ditch through the for- 

 est in El Dorado Co., intent upon 

 studying the varied bird life of the 



Sierras. The sides of the ditch were 

 covered with rank ferns while "moun- 

 tain misery" grew luxuriantly at the 

 side of the path, and I vainly sought 

 to Hush some Calaveras Warbler from 

 her nest in such a promising spot. All 

 of a sudden 1 heard a tremendous ham- 

 mering in the woods and concluded 

 that the workman must be a Pileated 

 Woodpecker. Following the sound 1 

 soon located Ceophlaus on a large dead 

 pine, perhaps 50 feet up, and again he 

 repeated his resounding tattoo on the 

 dead tree and expressed his approval 

 in a harsh, resonant cry which could be 

 heard a long distance. A female was 

 shot later by Mr. Beck and Mr. Nutting 

 found a nest in a dead burnt pine con- 

 taining four young on June 18. Alti- 

 tude 3,700 feet. 



I watched the Woodpecker's undulat- 

 ing flight until he disappeared, when I 

 turned to several Warblers, principally 

 D. nigrescens, which were flitting about, 

 among the small cedar and spruce, now 

 and then bursting forth in a weak 

 though sweet, song. A pair of Audu- 

 bon's Warbler's were nervously thread- 

 ing their way up through a large 

 spruce, but finally were given up for 

 other avain attractions which seem to 

 succeed each other so rapidly in the 

 forest. Suddenly there burst upon my 

 ear a beautiful bell-like note but tea 

 feet away and recognizing the musician 

 as a Cassins Vireo I knew that its 

 handsomely- woven little nest was in a 

 certain small black oak sapling stand- 

 ing alone in the clearing, from whence 

 floated the song. A few steps and 

 there, hidden only by the light-colored 

 leaves, swung the nest with its unsus- 

 pecting little owner rocking to and fro 

 in the morning breeze. She flitted off 

 to a near-by bush and poured forth her 

 full, round song with no sign of alarm, 

 and with that perfect confldeuce with 

 which some birds are imbued. The 

 nest was at the end of a drooping 

 branch of the black oak and only seven. 



