THE OOLOGIST. 



11 



that ever eame from avian tongue, but, 

 Devertheless, it is pleasant to hear ou 

 some clear, frosty morning in March, 

 coming from tiie top of a tall tree. 



How well I remember the flfrst one I 

 heard iu 1890. The wind was blowing 

 quite a gale, when I heard the call of 

 ^'qiiiscalus" coming on the wind. I 

 I'ushed out of doors and there on the 

 toiJmost branch of a mammoth cotton- 

 wood tree sat q?cisc((ius, scraping away 

 like the fiddler at a backwoods hoe- 

 down, although he could hardly retain 

 his equilil>rium on the branch when an 

 especially hard gust would come dash- 

 ing down from the North. 



The Bronzed Grackle builds a large 

 and bulky nest, usually in the upper 

 part of a tree. They seem to have a. 

 special fondness for cedar trees, 

 and as they are gregarious iu their nest- 

 ing habits, a grove of these trees is us- 

 ually selected as their nesting site. 

 During the breeding season "Bedlam 

 reigns" in these tenarted groves, and I 

 have walked through it when the 

 ground was literally covered with the 

 excrement, and every branch was white 

 with it. 



In the nest the female deposits 4 to 6 

 eggs of an olivaceous green shade, 

 thickly blotched with very dark brown. 

 In size the eggs average 1.23x.90. 



The eggs of this bird I find to he 

 higiiiy variable in size as well as color- 

 ation. They are often almost without 

 spots or blotches of any kind, and I 

 have also .seen some in Avhich the 

 blotches almost entirely covered the 

 original back ground. 



But this binl has <jne strong oppon. 

 ent to contend against, and that is the 

 bad name given it by a certain -class of 

 uneducated farmers who can look on 

 but one side of the question, and can 

 not be made to bciicve that the (ii'ackle 

 repays him tenfold for the comparative 

 mite of grain that he consumes. Con- 

 sequeucely they are often driven away 

 and their homes despoiled by the farm- 



ers who thinks it is "a good riddance 

 ff bad rubbish." 



In conclusion I desire to urge all of 

 our j'oung ornithologists to write their 

 experiences with their feathered friends 

 or on the habits of birds that come un- 

 der their si)ecial observation, as such 

 arti(-les are always I'ead and enjoyed by 

 all, old or young, who are interested in 

 the study of ornitholog\' and the ad- 

 vancement of this most interesting 

 branch of natural science. 



Aix Sponsa, 

 Nebraska City, Neb. 



Albino Eggs of the Long-billed Marsh 

 Wren. 



I noticed in the November Oologist 

 about the finding of albino eggs of the 

 Long-billed Marsh Wren. On June 12th 

 '91, while out collecting in the marshes 

 on the Detroit River with J. Claire 

 Wood, we found four sets of Albino 

 Marsh Wren eggs. One set of five 

 were pure white, and very round for 

 the bird. Another set of six was just 

 the opposste being like the normal eggs 

 cf this species. These eggs were all 

 identified properly. Several other sets 

 had only a few faint markings on the 

 larger end of the eggs. I thought these 

 Albino eggs were rather unusual, but 

 as I never have seen anything about 

 them in ornithological papers I thought 

 that I would let you know about them. 

 B. A. Swales, 

 Detroit, Mich. 



On Nov. 1, /.)! a friend of mine hand- 

 ed me a pair of American Crossbills, 

 male and female which he iiad managed 

 to kill with a sling shot while they were 

 feeding on sun llovver see<l. There was 

 a large flock tanu; and easily approach- 

 ed. These are the lirst I have ever seen 

 in this State. 



W. W. Skarles, 

 Lime ,Si)rings, la. 



