May, 1882.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



115 



til that moment it was the common kind. 



A\'ithout delay I returned to the plaot? of 

 capture, but the other was not there. Go- 

 ing up stream I looked carefully through a 

 small piece of swampy woods, and, fortu- 

 nately, started and killed the other. They 

 proved to be a pair. 



While in "West Greenwich, R. I., May 2d, 

 I heard a loud ringing song which I could 

 not recall, and after a stealthy approach 

 espied the songster about twenty feet from 

 the ground on the branch of a sapling. At 

 short ijitervals he lifted his head, giving 

 his melodious song with as much ^•ivacity 

 as his cousin, the Golden Crowned Thrush. 

 This was obtained and another heard, 

 which, after about an hour's chase was also 

 secured. May, 1880, niunber three from 

 this locality was added. All of these 

 specimens were taken along rushing streams 

 in which trout are to be found, coiu'sing 

 through heavily wooded rocky coiuitry. 



This is the most wary small bird I am 

 acquainted witli, and the past Spring at 

 "UTieatland, Ind., and Mt. Carmel,"Ill., en- 

 abled me to get well acquainted with it, as 

 it was plentiful thi-oughout the bottoms. 

 The song bears a resemblance to that of 

 the Indigo Bird, and is as often delivered 

 from high up in a tree as from the groimd. 

 The tipping motion is constantly noticea- 

 ble as in the common species. The first 

 nest was found May 22d, in a hollow be- 

 side an Tiptunied root by a brook. It con- 

 tained five young just hatched. 



About June 1st, young were abundant. 

 Their chip and motion was precisely like 

 the old ones, and although half-fledged 

 and bob-tailed, they were hard to distin- 

 guish from adults at a short distance. At 

 this time, June 1st, when I had given up 

 all hopes of finding a set of eggs, I was 

 walking and pausing, looking carefully up 

 into the foUage, when, happening to stop 

 about fifteen feet from a large tree, a bu-d im- 

 mediately fluttered from its base, toppling 

 over first on one side, then on the othei", 

 stopping occasionally to kick spasmodical- 



ly. This performance was kept up in a 

 circular course for fully fifty yards, excel- 

 ling any bird I ever saw in this manoeuvre. 

 At the end of this feint it flew on to a limb 

 close by, giving its usual chip. From 

 where I stood I could look into the nest 

 and see the five eggs. The situation was 

 in such dense and heavy growth of trees 

 as to nearly stoj) undergrowth. The nest 

 was placed in the niche caused by the tree 

 slightly sj)reading towards the roots, and 

 no attempt whatever was made toward 

 concealment. The nest was a damp mat- 

 ted mass of rotten leaves, and lined with 

 fine roots and partly rotted stems of plants, 

 and had to be dried in the oven before 

 being fit to pack. The hollow was slight, 

 and the eggs resemble rather small, very 

 round and evenly spotted Chat's eggs — 

 those with large blotches and not thickly 



spotted.— i^. T. Jencks, Prov., R. I. 



^ 



Albinos. — Mr. J. Calhoim writes from 

 Illinois that a white Blue Jay came with 

 others to feed on the soaked bread fed to 

 his chickens. Noticing its peculiar color 

 he secured it on Jan. 30th, and is having it 

 carefully mounted. He writes that he 

 also saw a 'Ulute Crow feeding on the car- 

 cass of a dead horse, but was not able to 

 secure it. At a later date Mr. C. writes : 

 '• We have been having fine, balmy weather 

 for ten days. Most of the Spring birds 

 are here. They came from one to two 

 weeks earlier than last year. The Mead- 

 ow Larks came Feb. 3d, Blue Birds Gth, 

 Robins 9th. The Brant, Geese, and 

 Ducks came by the hundreds, the latter 

 on the 11th and 12th. The sportsmen re- 

 port all kinds of Water Fowl very plenty 

 on the prairies, in the sloughs and jionds. 

 I saw a great many Wild Pigeons on the 

 3d inst. flying in all directions. William 

 E. Hart and George Hunt killed an Owl 

 with a steel trap to his leg the 5th inst. 

 It measured four feet from tip to tip of 

 wings, and was spotted. 



t^^ Speak a good word for the Ornithol- 

 ogist to your correspondents. 



