60 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 16-No. 4 



Tom's eggs can be eaten with gusto. A 

 Tei-n's-egg custard after a .sea-bass chowder, 

 served on a Noank lobster boat moored in 

 Long Point cove, is a savory reminiscence of 

 last .Inly. 



Through September 1890 a White-he.aded 

 Eagle haunted the oyster stakes of these 

 coves. To the naked eye and through a glass 

 at close range his jacket seemed to be the rare 

 glossy black so coveted by collectors. 



Let my inquirer as to these summer breeding 

 ranges take his stand anywhere in the grove t>f 

 moss-covered hornbeams, about June ICth, 

 and hear an unrivalled medley. Above and 

 through the song of countless Parulaj, which 

 is like the droning of giant bees, is heard 

 the mocking cadence of Chats, the tiery out- 

 burst of the Orchard Oriole, and sweeter, 

 be('ause rarer, the cry of the Veery. To no 

 other place in my territory can I take a friend 

 and promise him the song of Wilson's Thrush. 

 In all of my collecting near Norwich liave I 

 found but one nest of tliis species. ]5ut in 

 this restricted swamp every season I find one 

 (U- two pairs breeding without search. Indeed 

 1 have really looked for no efjgs on (iroton 

 Long Point except Parula Warbler's, but in 

 observing the habits of this dominating 

 species, I get the random notes of its associ- 

 ates and neiglibors. 



Between the sjiindle at the end of the Point 

 (from which I have several sets of 0.sprey) to 

 the railroad bridge at the head of tlie coves 

 (off which I have taken Kingbird's nests) I 

 have run across most of our Connecticut eggs. 

 The first recorded set was five Bay-winged 

 Huntings, July .i, 187.5, and the last set of 

 (•(■;///( Parula, June 12, ISiiO. All the Robins' 

 and Kingbirds' nests — and the latter are very 

 common — are set into great mats of drag- 

 gling seaweed. 



Hut sea-wrack enters into the composition 

 of no other kind of nests if we bar Terns, 

 Sandpipers, Osprey and Crows. The Orchard 

 Oriole's nests here are on tlie whole the 

 showiest bird-homes I know of. Nests of this 

 species from Florida, with Spanish moss 

 effects, and from Texas, taken by Mr. fleo. B. 

 Sennett, are before me, but are not compar- 

 able in beauty to the northern examples. In 

 addition to the salmon-colored lining and 

 peculiar yellow grass exterior, they are placed 

 in the heart of the biggest bunches of lichen 

 with which they are interwoven and festooned. 

 The Yellow Warblers' nests are all filled with 

 pollen from the old cat-tail reeds. Maryland 

 Yellow Throat's nest is common and tyi)lcal. 



and always full of Cowbird's eggs. The 

 Prairies outnumber the Chestnut^sideds. 



Still, of the true royal family here, is 

 Parula. She breeds, as our migration charts 

 teach us to say, "abundantly." And why 

 shouldn't she, our little queen of these glades, 

 when she need fear no regicide '? Slie does 

 not have the arch enemy of our other Waib- 

 lers to contend with. In all the nests of this 

 species I ever saw 1 have found but one Cow- 

 bird's egg, and the nest containing the egg 

 was deseited. No arboreal builder carries less 

 material to her nest. The skeleton frame to 

 her house is already raised, and she has only 

 to fashion her window and lay her floor. 

 When Dr. Brewer first wrote me for nests and 

 eggs of the Paiula Warbler, and alluded to 

 sets of six from Taunton, I thought such sets 

 were freaks or impositions. So later, when 

 I sent Mr. J. Parker Norris a set of seven 

 1 believed it would long stand the largest 

 recorded set. But last season the first nest 1 

 found had five eggs, the next not twenty feet 

 distant had seven, and the last set taken con- 

 sisted of i'ii//it, all in swamp-huckleberi'y 

 bushes. 



The hornbeams and scrub-oaks hold the 

 bulk of the nests, but those in the draped un- 

 derbrush are easier found and got at. Yet 

 in both sites the nests are conspicuous to the 

 trained eye. Those which escape observation 

 are placed close to the trunk of the trees, 

 harmonize, and present no outline. Six suc- 

 cessive seasons is the longest I have known a 

 Blue Yellow-back to haunt one spot, and I 

 think that is about the limit of the breeding 

 activity. 



In conclusion I will note two changes wliicli 

 have taken place since I have harried this 

 field. The first year, or in 187(i, forty Whist- 

 ling Bob-whites could have been picked oft the 

 rocks in a June forenoon; this year, none. 

 This, however, can be remedied, but here is 

 something beyond present cure. The second 

 season of collection I marked down twelve 

 sets of Night Hawk's eggs. In 1890 there was 

 but one resident pair of Night Hawks. This is 

 because the rising sportsmen of Noank prac- 

 tise wing-shooting on this sjiecies. No com- 

 munity more stoutly maintains the privilege 

 of bearing arms than the fishermen and youth- 

 ful crews of the Noank lobster fleet. If this 

 armed rabble did not overrun all these shores 

 in the fall, shooting promiscuously at every- 

 thing within range, Groton Long Point would 

 remain an Eden for the birds of southern 

 New I'lnghind. On DecemV>er 1st T looked in the 



