THE OOLOGIST. 



57 



Bird Notes of an Illinois Collector. 



Below is an accimnt of my bird notes for 

 two days this spring : 



April 8 — Last night the wind changed 

 from north to west. This morning it was 

 south. We had quite a heavy frost last 

 night and this morning at 8 o'clock the 

 temperature was at 35 ° , at noon at 56°,. 

 and at 3:30 it was 10° higher and rising 

 all the time. I wsvs almost certain that this 

 weather would bring a bird wave, nor was 

 I mistaken, for on the next morning I 

 heard a great commotion and some lively 

 singing and went out for a walk through 

 the woods as quick as I could, for I had to 

 leave town at 7:45 a. m. and wanted to see 

 all I could before that time. Among the 

 hundreds of new arrivals were quite a 

 number of Yellow-shafted Flickers, the 

 first arrival in any numbers of this bird ; 

 50 or more Hermit Thrushes, 3 Yellow- 

 bellied Woodpeckers, besides 3 or 3 other 

 large Woodpeckers to wijich I could not 

 get near enough to obtain a description. I 

 have since thought they were the Hairy. 

 Large numbers (of Robins and Fox Spar- 

 rows accompanied the wave, wnth a fair 

 sprinkling of Brown Creepers and Phoebes 

 and hundreds of Black Snowbirds or 

 Juncos, which latter were all over the 

 woods — in the trees, in the bushes, on the 

 ground, everywhere. Song Sparrows, 

 Bluebirds, Kinglets, Blue Jays, Nuthatches, 

 Crows and Winter Wrens all sent more or 

 less representatives to the conference. Saw 

 .several flocks of ducks and one of geese, 

 and in passing over a wet place in the prai- 

 rie near the woods I got up a flock of 20 or 

 more noisy Killdeer and a small flock of 7 

 or 8 Pectoral Sandpipers or Grass Snipe. 

 The woods and prairies were actually ring- 

 ing wiih bird melody this morning, the 

 latter furnishing the songs of the Meadow 

 and Shore Larks ! Slightly warm this morn- 

 ing, with sun shining brightly. 



The next morning, having reached my 

 destination mentioned above, I paid a visit 

 to the swamps of the place to see what bird 

 life I could discover. I was rewarded for 

 my search by making a large bag of Pec- 



toral Sandpipers, two Passenger Pigeons, 

 which I got out of a flock that flew over 

 about a " mile " high, four Jack Snipe, of 

 which I saw seven. Saw large numbers of 

 ducks and geese, but as I had become an 

 " anti-spring .shootist " iuthe duck line, I 

 did not kill any, although I had abundant 

 chances to do so. This is my last spring 

 shooting of game of any kind, however, as 

 I have at last been converted. I was, at 

 the opening of the sea.son, requested by a 

 sportsman friend to examine the birds I 

 killed. The result is that I found a major- 

 ity of the birds I killed were females, most 

 of which contained eggs of various sizes, 

 varying fn the different species, and always 

 one or more rather large eggs. In the case 

 of 15 Rail I killed on the 16th I found in 8 

 females eggs nearly ready to be expelled 

 from the body, and in one case .several pel- 

 lets struck and broke an egg which would 

 have been laid in two or three minutes, it 

 having already a shell covering. The bird 

 would not get up for quite a while, but my 

 dog insisted on it, with the above result. 

 On May 1st I shot a female off a nest of 11 

 eggs and saw several other full nests. I 

 have enough opportunities to shoot in the 

 fall, so good-bye to .spring game shooting, 

 for I shall have no more of it. 



G. B. H., 

 Suburb of Chicago. 



A Plucky Wood Pewee; Long-billed 

 Marsh Wrens. 



In the spring of '85 I found the nest of a 

 Wood Pewee, and on the 17th of June 

 there were three eggs in it. I took the eggs 

 and nest. Not long after I saw the bird 

 flying around where the old nest was, so I 

 watched her and saw her take a little of the 

 wool that was left and fly with it to where 

 she was making a new nest. This nest was 

 soon completed, but she had not built it 

 strong enough, for it tipped before she had 

 laid any eggs. She carried this nest away 

 and again built another nest, which was 

 somewhat better than the last, as she laid 

 one egg in it. It also began to tip and the 

 next day when I returned there was just 



