THE OOLOGIST 



41 



The nests are made in some depres- 

 sion in the Rocks, where the birds in- 

 habit the hills, generally under a small 

 cedar, cactus or other natural protec- 

 tion, with a few cedar needles or dirt 

 for the eggs to rest upon and a few 

 feathers from the old bird's breast as a 

 lining, but the feathers are very scarce, 

 sometimes lacking altogether. In the 

 valley they nest under a sage brush, 

 cactus or some other bush and have a 

 nice dry nest of leaves and small sticks, 

 although built with no system as in the 

 case with so many birds. They lay 

 from eight to fourteen eggs of a dirty 

 cream color with specks of brown of 

 different sizes. A. R. Beymer. 



Rocky Ford, Colo. 



Winter Notes. 



There are but few points to be ob- 

 served from my study window in the 

 winter months; still there is more of in- 

 terest than would be at first supposed. 

 There have been over a dozen species 

 observed, while the plant life is worth 

 studying. For instance, there is a little 

 garden bed under my window which 

 was carefully made over on the 28th, 

 of last October, yet from this bed has 

 sprung a mass of chick weed that has 

 blossomed off and on for over a month 

 and at this date, February 9th, 1900, is 

 covered with buds, although covered 

 with snow. The snow has come and 

 gone four times this winter, and twice 

 we have had zero weather, yet, al- 

 though the weather was below zero on 

 the first of this month still the little 

 chickweed showed a great mass of buds 

 under the snow. 



Among the birds the Blue Jay is the 

 most regular in appearance and hardly 

 a day passes that these droll fellows are 

 not seen and heard near our house 

 The Jay is the most ubiquitous of all 

 the birds in this country. Not far from 

 our house and in plain sight from my 

 window are two large oaks and in eacn 



tree is a nest. These nests undoubted- 

 ly belong to the same pair of birds and 

 they have probably been occupied by 

 them at various times, and the devoted 

 pair shows considerable interest even in 

 winter. As my seat faces the oaks I can 

 see all that is going on in the trees and 

 and may keep watch of my friends 

 with very little loss of time. 



The Jays are to be seen almost every 

 day and when the weather is not too 

 severe and often when the temperature 

 is down as low as ten degrees above 

 zero; and they may be heard shrieking 

 defiance at old Boreas when the snow is 

 flying and the windows rattling. 



This particular pair of Jays frequent- 

 ly visits the oaks where the nests 

 are built, and four times during the space 

 from November to early February 

 I have seen the birds visit the nests 

 and hop into the cup and sit there as if 

 it were spring, and remain in that po- 

 sition for a full minute. Then the pair 

 would hop about the site as if in memo- 

 ry of the past season, or more probably 

 in anticipation of the coming season. 

 It is very unusual for birds to occupy 

 nests in the winter season, and I know 

 of no other instance where this occu- 

 pancy has been observed in the case of 

 those birds which build open nests after 

 the manner of the Jays. There are 

 some species which build and lay their 

 eggs in Februarv and early March, as 

 the Great Horned Owl, but it is not 

 generally known that any of the com- 

 mon smaller birds thus occupy their 

 summer homes. 



Morris Gibbs, Kalamazoo, Mich. 



Mocking-bird in California. 



I read the account of A. A. Jeft'rey in 

 the December Oologist and find that 

 the habits and nesting of the Mocking- 

 bird Mimus polyglottos differs very 

 much in California from those describ- 

 ed in the article of Mr. Jeffrey. 



Here the Mockingbird remains 



