May, 1889.] 



AISTD OOLOGIST. 



69 



know of all that are in collections) were taken in 

 Comal County, Texas. 



Set I. June 8th, 1886. Comal County, Texas. 

 Nest in foi-k of red cedar, fifteen feet from the 

 ground. Four eggs, fresh. Light creamy-white, 

 speckled with cinnamon-rufous, and a few 

 markings of lilac-gray. The specks are closer 

 together near the larger ends, where they 

 form indistinct wreaths : .67 x .51 ; .63 x .51 ; .65 

 X.50; .67X.51. 



Set II. June 27, 1880. Comal County, Texas. 

 Nest in cedar tree. Four eggs, fresh. Light 

 creamy-white speckled with bay and lilac- 

 gray. The markings are nearly all grouped near 

 the lai-ger ends: .65x.51 ; .62x.52 ; .65x.51 ; .65x.51. 



Set III. June 12th, 1886. Comal County, 

 Texas. Nest in cedar tree, eight feet from the 

 ground. Four eggs, fresh. Creamy-white, 

 speckled with lilac-gray and bay. The mark- 

 ings form indistinct wreaths near the larger 

 ends: .65x.51; .65x.51; .65x.50; .68x.52. 



Set IV. May 28th, 1886. Comal County, 

 Texas. Nest in fork of cedar tree, fifteen feet 

 from the ground. Four eggs, fresh. Light 

 creamy-white, wreathed near the larger ends 

 with specks of chestnut and lilac-gray. There 

 are also a few specks and spots of chestnut 

 scattered over the rest of the surface of the 

 eggs: .67 x.50; .66x.50; .67x.51; .67x.51. 



SetV. May 25th, 1886. Comal County, 

 Texas. Nest in fork of red cedar tree, fifteen 

 feet from the ground. Four eggs, fresh. 

 Light creamy-white, speckled and spotted 

 with lilac-gray and cinnamon-rufous. There 

 are also a few spots of chestnut. The mark- 

 ings are scattered all over the eggs, but are 

 heaviest near the larger ends: .64x.51; .66 x 

 .52; .63X.51; .62x..54. 



Set VI. April 18th, 1888. Comal County, 

 Texas. Nest in red cedar tree, ten feet from 

 the ground. Four eggs, incubation three- 

 fourths. Light creamy-white, speckled with 

 lilac-gray and chestnut. The markings are 

 heaviest near the lai-ger ends, where they form 

 indistinct wreaths: .69x.52; .68 x .51 ; .66x.51; 

 .69X.52. 



A typical nest, now before me, is securely 

 fastened in the fork of a red cedar. (The low- 

 er part of the branch below the fork measures 

 1.75, and one fork measures 1.40, and the 

 other 1.00 inch.) The outside depth of the 

 nest measures 2.22, inside depth 1.70; outside 

 diameter 2.40, inside diameter 1.50. 



It is made of strips of the bark of the red 

 cedar neatly and compactly woven together, 

 and lined with horse liair and a few feathers. 



J. P. N. 



Songs in the Night. 



Did you ever hear at dead of night, when all 

 was still, the clear, ringing note of some silver- 

 toned bird vocalist? How strange its song seemed 

 amid the darkness. And yet how beautiful. 



Well do I remember one night in June when 

 as I lay listening in the silence which 

 brooded over the gloomy forest primeval, I 

 heard at midnight the delicious fairy-like mu- 

 sic of some tiny bii'd, awake like myself and 

 half dreaming, too, like me, perhaps of some 

 far-away promised clime, where all is blissful, 

 serene contentment. 



But who knows what the little singer 

 dreamed when she poured forth her song of 

 love. Was not the cause, perchance, some 

 pleasant thought of her dear little birds asleep 

 somewhere in their cozy hidden nest'? How 

 few of our birds besides the weird hooting 

 owls sing in the night; surely we cannot prize 

 them too highly; Gambel's Sparrow, one of 

 the commonest of its tribe in California, 

 has a song of delightful melancholy sweet- 

 ness, and it loves to sing in the dusk of even- 

 ing, and after other birds have gone to rest. 

 I one heard one singing after eight o'clock in 

 the evening. 



I was riding after dark recently and about 

 half past seven I was unexpectedly i-egaled by 

 the pleasant, cheerful note of some merry- 

 hearted Meadow-lark singing one last song be- 

 fore it slept. I could only think him my 

 thanks for liis solo and pass on. 



One of our sweetest singers is the Eusset- 

 backed Thrush. In the spring-time during 

 the quiet hours of twilight it sings its best 

 song. Many an evening I have listened with 

 a peculiar restful pleasure to its liquid, far- 

 away warbling notes. The word "Israel" with 

 the last two syllables repeated twice in quick 

 succession will give some idea of its charming 

 carol. Our sweet-voiced bird is a very early 

 riser, and though it seldom sings its song then, 

 it is heard at the first grey streaks of dawn 

 whistling its short call to its mate in some 

 neighboring tree. 



In the genial warmth of the kind old sun 

 all nature is quickened anew to its never-end- 

 ing activity, and in every field and in every 

 wood the birds are expressing their jiraise to 

 the All-Creator in cheerful, gladsome song. 

 Glorious, happy daylight is truely the natural 

 element of bird songs, and how glad we are 

 that some few there be that will sing in the 

 night! Harry E. Taylor. 



Alameda, Cal. 



