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ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 17-No. 10 



near a deserted house, I was startled by a 

 series of clear, mellow whistles, ivholt^ 

 ivhoit. I followed it up, and saw a bird 

 I recognized, by description, as a female 

 Rose-breasted Grosbeak. She had a big 

 fat caterpillar in her beak, and was calling 

 her young one, who I saw in a tree near 

 by; as he refused to fly, she flew to him, 

 calling again. I looked over my binocu- 

 lars, and they fell. Unfortunately, the 

 young one fell on a stone, and the head 

 splitting open let out a mixture of brains 

 and eye water. Her stomach contained a 

 large dragon fly, several caterpillars, and 

 a mess of flies and green vegetable tips. 



That mellow, rich whistle quite opened 

 my eyes, and I was prepared, when I fol- 

 lowed a glorious song, to find a $ Gros- 

 beak singing. Their voice has a peculiar 

 "human" quality. It is more like 

 human singing than the Cardinal's 

 whistle. 



Many times after that, as I whipped the 

 Beaverkill in a golden sunset glory, did I 

 hear that wonderful song and see the flash 

 of the musician as he flitted along the 

 bank. JMushkodasa. 



Nest of the Winter ^A^ren. 



As my observations and impressions 

 regarding the nesting and other habits of 

 this species ( Troglodytes Hiemalis) , in 

 former years, have already been recorded, 

 I will on the present occasion confine my 

 notes to my experience on this subject for 

 the season of 1892. 



I first heard the pleasing melodies of 

 three individuals of this species on the 

 morning of the 7th of April, though it is 

 probable, as the weather had been favor- 

 able, that it had made its advent in this 

 vicinity a week earlier. When first no- 

 ticed, it was in full song, and was com- 

 mon afterwards, though the different in- 

 dividuals were continually shifting their 

 places of habitat. Now one was heard on 



the margin of the clearing ; then, in a 

 short time, its thrilling notes came from 

 the middle of the deep swamp, and may 

 be an hour afterwards its music rose and 

 fell in the centre of the highland wood. 

 And I noticed several mornings, when I 

 had remained out all night in the sugar- 

 bush, that the species was the first, as day 

 began to dawn in the eastern sky, to greet 

 the coming day with its charming melody. 

 As the season advanced I was on the look- 

 out for the nesting-places of the species, 

 and was pleased to find, not far from each 

 other and in my vicinity, several newly 

 formed nests, giving me expectations that 

 I would afterwards collect therefrom one 

 or more sets of their eggs, but in all tiiese 

 early "finds" I was disappointed; for 

 none of them were finished. As previ- 

 ously remarked in other articles on this 

 subject, I believe that this nest-making on 

 the part of the Woodland Wren is the 

 work of the male bird, who leaves it in a 

 certain stage of completeness, and then, if 

 desirable on the part of the female, she 

 puts in the lining preparatory to deposit- 

 ing her eggs. By the first of June I had 

 given up all expectations of collecting any 

 of the eggs of this species, but on the 12th 

 of that month I was taking a last look at 

 some nesting places of other species, and 

 had just secured a fine set, 1-5, of the 

 Canadian Warbler, when, on approaching 

 the margin of a little woody dell, on the 

 northeast corner of wild wood, and near 

 where I was often at work, in a new clear- 

 ing, the song of this species rose near by. I 

 thought I would take a look. Beneath a 

 large hemlock root that, after the trunk 

 had been sawed off, had fallen back to 

 about two feet off the ground, as I stooped 

 down, so that I could get a view beneath, 

 a Wren darted out of its nest close to 

 the entrance and flew away. Judging 

 from the time, my first impressions were 

 that here was a nest containing either 

 young or eggs in an advanced state of in- 



