50 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[\'..l. IG-No. 4 



sudtlenly, however, my tlioughts took quite 

 anothei' turn, for as my eyes were raised to a 

 certain elevation I beheld bearing down upon 

 us a flock of two score of Wood Ibis. Reach" 

 int; for my }j;un we waited for them luit tlu^y 

 saw us and passed off to the south out of 

 range. Crossing the lake to the .south side 

 where we hoped to lind Anhingas breeding wo 

 were once more disappointed to find only old 

 nests used last 'year. But passing further on 

 we unexpectedly came upon an Anhinga sitting 

 on a cypress that overhung the water. He 

 poised his wings for flight but just then re- 

 ceiving a charge of No. fi shot from the boat 

 he I'eeled a moment and then fell backwards to 

 rise no more. 



At the report of the gun a cloud of birds 

 rose a little farther on, and among them we 

 distinguished a score or more Anhingas. Soon 

 we were there. Soon, even without the aid 

 of climbing irons, 1 was twenty feet fmm the 

 gi'ound astride a cypress limb gazing down 

 into a nest beautifully lined with mos.s at four 

 handsome eggs which lay in the bottom. 

 There were perhaps a dozen Divers' nests in 

 the colony, most of which contained eggs, 

 usually three or four in number. Some nests 

 were not yet complete, and on one ne.st, viewing 

 us with open-mouthed wonder, stood two 

 youno perhaps ten days old. They were odd- 

 looking squabs, and as they sat then' eyeing 

 us they i-eniinded me of some pictures I had 

 seen of Auk.s or Guillemots. 



There were perhaps twenty-live or thirty 

 nests of the Great Blue Heron in the rookery, 

 the eggs of which were hatched, and the young 

 could be seen standing around on the nests, 

 some of which were quite as large as their 

 parents. In a bunch of tall cypress a little to 

 one side of the general rookery a few pairs of 

 Great White Egrets were nesting, and a little 

 climbing soon added a dozen of their eggs to 

 the spoils of the day. 



An hour and we were reluctantly leaving the 

 place which but a short time before had 

 afforded us sucli great pleasure. In the bow 

 of the boat carefully packed away lay twenty- 

 one eggs of the American Diver. 



The rest of the day was spent in examining 

 the neighboring islands in quest of Vultures' 

 eggs, and late that night we broke camp "and 

 folding our tents like Arabs silently stole 

 away." T. G. Pearnmi. 



Arcuer, Fl.i. 



Nesting of Wilson's Thrush in 

 Western Pennsylvania. 



Send us ilie a(l<lres.s of any ornithologists you know, 

 Tliat we ui.iy mail them samples of the O. * < >. 



Wilson's Thrush (Ilyloclclilnfiinci'tiren.s) has 

 heretofore been considered to be a transient 

 visitor in Pennsylvania, breeding but very 

 rarely, and then cliietly in mountainous 

 districts. Within tlie last two years, however. 

 I have had the good fortune to discover that 

 in this section of the state there aie localities 

 where, strange as it may seem, the species is a 

 common breeder, so that the records of its 

 nesting as given in the May and June (1S90) 

 numbers of the O. & O. by Messrs. Koch, 

 Norris. and Surber, however exceptional they 

 may be for the localities mentioned, cannot be 

 held to indicate the uniform rarity of the bird 

 as a sumirier resident throughout the entire 

 state, for quite the contrary is true. 



On May 15, 1K89, I boarded the train bound 

 for Leasuresville, Butler County. When, late 

 the same afternoon, I stepped off at the lonely 

 way-station of Monroe, a single glance at my 

 surroundings convinced me that I was in a 

 locality especially rich in bird-life, and, as 

 subsequent events proved, my .iudgnient 

 formed then was collect. And as I trudged 

 up the hill, tired and dinnerless, and carrying 

 a heavy valise and shotgun, with the ])iospect 

 of a threc-iniles" walk in the hot sun over a 

 hilly, dusty road befoie arriving at my des- 

 tination, I was <liecrc<l by the song of a bird I 

 had never heard luforc, but in the lliitc-like 

 <iuality of whose notes I lecognized its nihility 

 with the Wood Thrush. I did not se(^ the biid 

 at the time, and pursuit was obviously out of 

 the question, but I instantly decided that it 

 must be Wilson's Thrush. Thereafter, during 

 my stay, while wandering amid the eternal 

 gloom of the trackless, hemlock forest and the 

 swampy thicket. I constantly heard the same 

 song, which may be expressed by the syllables 

 hee-awe'i'-awe'i'r-awf'hr-aweer-awi'f'r-avi/' , begin- 

 ning loud and clear, but gradually dying away 

 toward the end, — a far-away, weird song, with 

 a wild ring to it savoring of untouched nature 

 and the primeval forest. The acoustic (juality 

 of the notes was such that they always seemed 

 to come from a distance, but though I riglitly 

 suspected that this was not really the case tlie 

 birds ahvays eluded my observation while 

 singing, and it was not until June 11th that 

 y perseverance was at last rewarded by 

 seeing the bird in the act, and thus i)roving 

 finally that my suspicions, as to the author of 

 the songs being Wilson's Tlirush, were correct. 



