186 



THE OOLOGIST. 



nests? There are often several weeks 

 of dry weather and just as the sea- 

 son is in its height a heavy rain 

 washes everything away and when the 

 high grass is leveled out, empty nests 

 can easily be found that were entirely 

 •out of sight before. 



I take the James River marshes as 

 an example, as the Swamp Sparrow 

 appears to be commoner, and a larger 

 -colonizer here than any other marsh 

 I have visited. Just after sunset a 

 large number of these birds can be 

 seen running along the ground, and 

 making short flights among the cat- 

 tails. 



The marking of the eggs of this spe- 

 cies vary to a great extent. They in 

 no wise closely resemble the eggs of 

 the Song Sparrow fonnd in this local- 

 ity. Most of the latter are so covered, 

 blurred and splotched with reddish- 

 brown as to give them almost a choc- 

 olate color, while the eggs the Swamp 

 Sparrow are clearly and d istinctly 

 marked on a pale hlue ground color, 

 the markings never . covering more 

 than one-third of the entire area, and 

 often less, while I have one set of the 

 Song Sparrow so obliterated with 

 brown as to render the ground color 

 almost invisible. The eggs of the 

 Swamp Sparrow average a trifle lar- 

 ger than the Song Sparrow and do not 

 appear to have the glossy surface of 

 the former. In conclusion I would say 

 the sets of the Swamp Sparrow before 

 me now in their original nests, make 

 the finest showing in my collection of 

 more than two hundred sets, and I be- 

 lieve one particular set contains the 

 most beautiful eggs I have. 



THOS. SEMMES, JR. 



Blue Rapids, Kas., Nov. 19, '08. 

 Dear Mr. Short: — 



May I comment, as briefly as possi- 

 ble, on the "rounding-up" which 

 Messrs. Rockwell and Warren have 



given me in The Oologist for current 

 September? 



In the matter of the domestic hab- 

 its of the Western Kingbird, their 

 criticisms are well founded; and I 

 take my medicine, therefore and there- 

 for, with all alacrity. Yet the last 

 word is not said; 



That statements, as to outre or lit- 

 tle-known nesting conditions are to be 

 found, unverified, in Davie's Work on 

 Oology proves nothing. My only con- 

 fession, in this one matter is, that I 

 did not notice, in Davie, the Shields 

 citation as authority for statements as 

 to the domestic nesting-habit of the 

 Western Kingbird. Had I done so, the 

 citation would have been made in my 

 notes in "Nesting Ways;" and my 

 strictures in the Oologist would never 

 have heen written. The same excuse 

 must maintain as regards the Life 

 History citations for the Western 

 Kingbird. With thousands of refer- 

 ences to look up, in connection with 

 my current work on the nesting hab- 

 its of North American Birds, it may 

 be considered fairly excusable that 

 one should overlook important items 

 with regard to species which he, him- 

 self, has familiarly studied. My error 

 lay in concluding that the habits of 

 the Western Kingbird in Southern 

 Minnesota, (where it has hut recently 

 found a wing-hold), were uniform with 

 those which maintain in regions of 

 settled habitance. This is an error 

 for which one really onght to be 

 ashamed. 



In the matter of the Western King- 

 bird-Say Phoebe ledge-nesting con- 

 troversy, I am intimately familiar with 

 both birds in question, in their breed- 

 ing haunts. Yet I would not presume 

 to pronounce on the identity of a sup- 

 positious specimen of either, at some 

 little distance, on the wing: (unless 

 the bird's note were heard). More- 

 over, were I to see, at some distance, 



