THE OOLOQI8T 



57 



advantage of the industry of his small- 

 er relatives, the Osprey. Kingfishers 

 perch on every small snag, watching 

 the water for their finney prey and 

 both the Black Terns are very com- 

 mon. One could spend the entire sea- 

 son in this locality with great pleas- 

 ure. A. S. Peters, 



Lake Wilson, Minn. 



CAROLINA CHICKADEE 



The Carolina Chickadee is the most 

 common bird we have with us in the 

 early spring, and it is somewhat like 

 the Plumbeous Chickadee, both in 

 color and nesting habits. 



The average nesting date that we 

 can find a full set of fresh eggs is 

 April 13th although I have found sets 

 as early as March 3rd. 



Here in this locality one does not 

 have to go out into the woods to find 

 their nests. All you have to do is to 

 go to the edge of town and pick out a 

 barb wire fence, then start down the 

 line looking at every fence post. Be- 

 fore you have gone very far, ten to 

 one, you have found your nest, be- 

 cause they invariably pick out a fence 

 post to build their nest in. They pick 

 out a post where there is a spot in it 

 that has started to decay, therefore, 

 making the job less laborious, as you 

 will notice by the accompanying 

 photograph. But on the other hand 

 j'ou will find five nests out of a pos- 

 sible twelve placed in a natural or de- 

 cayed spot of the post which requires 

 no labor at all to excavate. In plac- 

 ing the nest material in the hole they 

 always (in every case) start the 

 foundation off with a one inch bed of 

 pretty green tree moss. Then comes 

 a layer of fine stripes of fibrous bark, 

 followed up with a warm lining of soft 

 hair, usually from a rabbit. 



In one instance I saw a Chickadee 

 make ten or twelve trips to an old 

 dead donkey and pull hair from the 

 carcass for the nest which they had 



close by. Many a time I have been 

 strolling along a quiet country road 

 and would be attracted by a faint 

 muffled "ra-a-tat-tat" sound being 

 made from some little unseen object, 

 then the thought always strikes me to 

 make for the nearest fence post be- 

 cause I know Mr. and Mrs. Chickadee 

 are making a nest in one of them 

 close by. Then it is only a matter of 

 a minute to locate the nest. 



Their eggs are from five to eight in 

 a set, white sprinkled with small 

 specks of redish brown and measures 

 .53x.43. The eggs are most dis- 

 tinguishable from those of the Parus 

 carolinensis agilis. 

 Earl E. Moffat, Marshall, Texas. 



The European Starling In Virginia 



The winter of 1917 and 1918 was the 

 hardest one we have had in this state 

 since 1888. That season I recorded 

 the Starling in Tidewater, Va., (Oolo- 

 gist. Vol. 34, page 111). Last season 

 none were noted in Tidewater during 

 the entire v.^inter, it being quite mild. 

 This year a small flock of eight Starl- 

 ing were seen in Warwick County on 

 October 11th flying off to one side of 

 a small flock of blackbirds. 



Another flock of Starling, twelve or 

 fourteen, were seen this year on De- 

 cember 13th in the same county. Up 

 to that time we had had no cold 

 weather, so I presume these birds have 

 come to stay as a resident. During a 

 late trip in December, as far north as 

 New York, the birds were seen near 

 Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia 

 and New York and now breed near 

 all these cities abundantly. They are 

 gradually extending their breeding 

 range southward from Chester, Pa., 

 along the eastern shore peninsular of 

 Charles, Va., but 1 have no record of 

 nest with eggs or young as yet. 

 Maryland and Virginia, towards Cape 

 Harold Bailey, Newport News, Va. 



