30 



TBE OOLOGI^T. 



before mc and the familiar birds^of my 

 native region can yet yield me a store 

 of delightful expLniences. One of these 

 occurred in last June, while I was 

 rambling along the bank of the Illinois 

 river near Havana. A sudden shower 

 came up unobserved by me as 1 searched 

 the dense undergrowth for the nest of a 

 Vireo which I heard singing in the tan- 

 gle. 1 took i-efuge under a large, 

 sp'-eading sycamore whose long droop- 

 ing boughs almost touched I he ground, 

 and crouching against the trunk while 

 the rain dashed ui)on the foliage over- 

 head and soon came dripping through 

 •upon me, I swept my eyes around to 

 survey my shelter. Ten feet in frout 

 of me, glued to the side of a drooping 

 twig, was a bit of moss-covered materi- 

 al which caught my gaze and jauntily 

 riding on this swaying craft was a 

 Hummingbird, not the least disturbed 

 by the watery dash, for directly above 

 her and not three inches from the nest 

 was a leaf larger than my hand com- 

 pletely roofing the structure. She eyed 

 me closely and inquiringly during the 

 twenty minutes I remained imprisoned 

 by the shower, and I assure you that it 

 was a pleasure to watch her behavior, 

 as she evidently wanted to leave the 

 nest because of my proximity but dread- 

 ed to venture out into the pelting rain. 

 After the shower had passed, when I 

 approached the nest, she left with a 

 whirr of her tiny wings which quite 

 startled me, and while I examined the 

 cottony fabrication she came humming 

 about my head in a really pugnacious 

 manner. The nest was only six feet 

 from the ground and was placed- ob- 

 liquely against the side of a perpendic- 

 ularly hanging twig about twelve inches 

 from its extremity. 



It would be in order here for me to 

 ask if this nest was not situated in a 

 peculiar manner, but I have concluded 

 that my experiences are not much un- 

 like those of other observers, and there- 

 fore 1 refrain from this threadbare query 



CHESTER BARLOV7, Santa Clara, Cal. 



It is acommon fault of inexperiencetl 

 observers to imagine that their discov- 

 eries are quite out of the usual line. I 

 recall the elation I felt many years ago 

 over the discover}' of-anest of the Green 

 Heron in the woods near my home and 

 how I seriously considered the advisa- 

 bility of writing up an account fif the 

 nest and eggs for the Nuttall Bulletin, 

 which 1 had seen mentioned as the 

 leading magazine on ornithology. I 

 had never heard of the species, but on 

 consulting the pages of a cyclopedia 

 and identifying my tind I was surprised 

 to learn that I had found only the nest 

 of a "Shitepoke." And while I am in 

 the mood for confession, I remember 

 that no later than two summers aga, 

 while in the vicinity of Quiver Lake. 

 Illinois, I found my first nest of the 

 Hummingbird. It was placed far out 

 on the end of a branch of a small birch 

 tree, but by means devised only by us 

 egg cranks I secured the treasure. 



