THE OSPREY. 



105 



move up and down tog-ether, neither 

 do they retain their relative positions 

 in the flock. Those from the front 

 may fall to the center or rear. The 

 bunches may roug-hly be placed in two 

 catag-ories: 1. Those which return earl- 

 ier, flv hig-her, more leisurely and less 

 compactly and utter the notes. 2. Those 

 which return later, fly lower, more rap- 

 idly, more compactly and are silent. The 



larg-er flocks are more likely to be com- 

 pact than the smaller ones. 



When reaching- the tules a flock usually 

 hovers overheard and descends in graceful 

 spirals with short breaks in the descent as 

 we have seen a Horned Lark do. 



Other birds being- in a g-reat hurry may 

 dash at once headlong into the tules. 

 Most of the birds seem to be males. One 

 partial albino was recorded. 



Flycatcher Notes. 



BV REV. P. B. PEABODV, vST. VINCENT, MINN. 



ARECE^^T article by Mr. Mitchell on 

 the Flycatchers of Minnesota, will 

 probabl}^ call forth commsnt from 

 some of the resident ornitholog-ists of Mr. 

 Mitchell's State, whose observations differ 

 more or less widely from those that are 

 recorded in The OiPREv for Februarv, 

 1897. 



The King-bird is recorded as breeding- 

 g-enerally quite hig-h from the g-round, 

 while in point of fact, remarks made by 

 Mr. Rolfe in a recent article in The Xid- 

 olog/st are, so far as relates to the prairie 

 reg-ions of Minnesota, much nearer the 

 mark; for in these reg-ions the avcragx 

 nesting- heig-ht will prove to be under 

 four feet, many nests being- considerably 

 lower. A sing-le nest was noted by me, 

 last November, in a little bush, not four- 

 teen inches from the g-round, and within 

 two feet of a frequented road. The post- 

 top n sting site, of which Mr. Mitchell 

 speaks, is very common in the south- 

 western part of the State, where willow 

 stems, used as posts, have thrown out 

 sprouts near the top. 



T. verticalis was spoken of as being 

 "rare.'" On the contrary, it is quite 

 common in the extreme southwestern part 

 of Minnosota. 



"About thirty per cent of the eggs (of 

 the Phoebe) are'spotted." H Mr. Mitchell 

 had said that perhaps about thirt}' per 

 cent of the sets of eggs contain spotted 

 examples, he would have made a state- 

 ment which other observors could have 

 accepted, yet even this is undoubtedly 

 quite above the mark. 



One wonders where, "in the southern 

 part of" Minnesota accurate field-workers 

 have found the Olive-sided Flycatcher 

 breeding. It is almost certain that this 



species never breeds in Southern Minne- 

 sota, where conifers are conspicuously 

 absent. In Northern Minnesota, where 

 the evergreen forests abound, one might 

 reasonably expect to find it. 



I am astonished to find E. traillii 

 spoken of as being a "rare migrant," and 

 only migrant. In the brushland country 

 that lies but a few miles to the east of 

 St. Paul, whence Mr. Mitchell writes, I 



MEXICAN SCREECH OWL. 

 PHOTO. FROM LiFt EV W. H. NASH, PUEBLO, COLO. 



