118 



THE OOLOGISl 



the songs of the birds were heard on 

 every hand, the notes of the Red-eyed 

 Vireo and the rollicking song of the 

 Kentucky Warbler being especially 

 noticeable. Several limes did my 

 pulses quicken momentarily at the 

 sight of old nests, but never a hawk 

 did we see. At last my eye caught 

 sight of a bulky mass some 40 feet 

 up in a double crotch of a beech. A 

 rap on the tree failed to scare a bird, 

 but instinctively I knew it to be a 

 Broad-wing. The irons buckled on, I 

 hurried up and eagerly looked over 

 the edge. There I found — nothing. 

 It was a new nest, even to the lining 

 of fresh green beech leaves, but for 

 some reason it was later deserted, 

 though not disturbed in the least. 

 In speaking of this matter with Mr. 

 Frank L. Burns, he mentioned that 

 it was by no means a rare trait of the 

 Broadwings to leave a nest after com- 

 pleting it. 



And so the day wore on, and my 

 spirits began to sink. Farther and 

 farther we roamed and still not a 

 hawk did we see. Entering another 

 woods we struck along the top of a 

 ridge, commanding a view of the steep 

 hillsides on either hand. Some dis- 

 tance ahead and far down the hill 

 I saw a nest. On closer approach the 

 tail of the bird was seen over the 

 edge and I knew that at last success 

 had crowned my efforts. A rap on 

 the tree and she was gone. It was 

 an ugly climb, but nothing less than 

 chains could have kept me from that 

 nest. Gradually, the distance to the 

 nest grew less, and the ground rapid- 

 ly receded. Over broken limbs, pro- 

 jections and several "bulges" of the 

 trunk I struggled, and at last looked 

 over the edge. Do you older collec- 

 tors remember your first set of Broad- 

 wing's? If so, you can sympathize 

 with me. The eggs were packed and 

 the nest measured ,and I returned to 



the ground a gladder and wiser man. 

 Then while my friends unstrapped 

 my irons I pulled out my notebook and 

 wrote: "The situation was on a steep 

 hillside within 10 yards of Darby 

 Creek, and the nest was at least 75 

 feet up in a Shellbark which leaned 

 slightly towards the creek. Bird 

 flushed when I tapped on the tree; 

 several times she circled back near 

 the tree, making no outcry of any 

 kind. The nest was built in a two- 

 pronged fork and was very substan- 

 tially built, evidently by the birds 

 themselves. Constructed of corn- 

 husks, sticks, and lined with pieces 

 of bark, a few downy feathers and 

 green oak leaves. Outward diameter 

 30 inches, cavity 6 inches across and 

 3 inches deep, being much better de- 

 fined than my Cooper Hawk's nests. 

 The eggs were three in number and 

 handsomely marked with blotches of 

 reddish-brown and shell markings of 

 lavender and stone-gray." Later de- 

 velopments showed them to be incu- 

 bated about nine days. 



An so ended my day with the 

 Broad-wings in the verdant hills of 

 Delaware countj*. I have found the 

 nests with young in Bucks county, but 

 nowhere does it appear common in 

 the Keystone State, unless it be Ches- 

 ter county, where I understand a num- 

 ber of sets have been taken. 



Four Sets of Eggs From One Bird's 

 Nest. 



RICHARD F. MILLER. 



On May 29, 1906, a set of three fresh 

 eggs of the Wood Thrush (Hylocichla 

 mustelina) were taken from a nest at 

 Holmesburg, Pa., which was' saddled 

 to a horizontal wild cherry branch, 

 along the edge of a wood at the bot- 

 tom of a railroad embankment. 



On June 7th, another set of three 

 fresh eggs were taken from the same 

 nest. 



