J^ehraska Ornithologists' Union 99 



the thickets in the river valleys, where it bred commonly. 

 One nest, discovered on June 9, 1911, was placed in a wil- 

 low five or six feet from tlie ground. It was composed of 

 grass and plant hhres and eontainefl four ej^'^s. 



During the nesting season the voice of the chats could 

 be heard on every hand in the valley region but the singers 

 themselves were not so much in evidence. At rare inter- 

 vals you could catch a glimpse of brilliant yellow through 

 the vines and tangle of interlaced branches, but it waa 

 only for a moment. Attempts to stalk the singer usually 

 failed and ^\ere you not acquainted with the bird and its 

 ways you might have been led to believe in the existence 

 of a disembodied voice, so persistently did the creature 

 elude 3'ou. Occasionally you might see a chat rising from 

 the brush into the air but pausing suddenly to turn and 

 descend asrain, resembling a bird less than' an awkward, 

 loose-jointed assortment of legs, wings and tail, all the 

 time keeping up the jumbled variety of catcalls and whis- 

 tles which you heard from the thicket before the perform- 

 ance started. One of the birds in the vicinity of the Re- 

 serve had a "cack'-cack'-cack' " so like that of a 



Magpie that I almost allowed myself to be deluded several 

 times with the idea that a bird of the latter kind was in 

 the neighborhood. 



On June ] 8, 1 912, one of my mammal traps in the brush 

 along the river was robbed, the thief leaving only the 

 mangled head of the mouse which had been caught. I 

 reset the trap, using the remains of the carcass as bait, 

 and the next morning found a female chat in it. Whether 

 the bii'd had been the thief of the preceding night, or was 

 merely making a curious investigation or perhaps was 

 caught entirely accidentally, 1 cannot say. 



126. Wilsonia pusilla pusilla (Wilson) — Wilson Warbler. 



On August 21, 1911, I collected a specimen of true east- 

 ern W. p. pusilla in the undergrowth near the river and 

 I saw others on September 22, both there and at the base 

 of the hills. On August 29 and 30, 1912, a single indi- 

 vidual was present in the first-mentioned habitat. F. M. 

 Chapman lists the species in May, 1906. It and the fol- 

 lowing variety are probably both regidar migrants at this 

 locality although I do not think the present form extends 



