THE OOLOGIST 



77 



tions. Out of a hundred and fifty nests 

 the highest I have found was twenty- 

 eight feet, in the top of a willow. 



The bird is also commonly called the 

 Turtle Dove in Iowa. 



E. A. Stoner. 



The Indigo Bunting in Northern New 

 Jersey. 



In the northern half of New Jersey, 

 especially in the Upper Passaic Valley, 

 this beautifully hued bird is without 

 doubt the most often met with of all 

 the feathered denizens of the old fields 

 and bordering hedgerows and bram- 

 bles. In fact, from its arrival with us 

 in early May until the moulting season 

 commences in early August, the beau- 

 tiful ditty of the male is perhaps the 

 most often heard during each day 

 from the tree tops and other conspicu- 

 ous perches near where his rather din- 

 gy and sparrowlike mate has secret- 

 ed her nicely woven cup-shaped home 

 and attends to the domestic duties of 

 rearing and providing for their pro- 

 geny. 



Each day as the sun reaches the 

 zenith point and its heat is most in- 

 tense, not a whit cares this beautiful 

 songster as it seems to the writer that 

 the warmer and more sultry the day, 

 the higher arises his spirits and his 

 songs are uttered with greater zest 

 and increased vigor. 



During the breeding seasons for the 

 past decade and a half I have exam- 

 ined many nests and have watched 

 their habits about the nest repeatedly 

 and have learned many interesting 

 phases of their homelife which have 

 been real revelations to me. However, 

 two nests which were found during 

 the summer of 1914 at Sager's Pond 

 at Haskell, Passaic County, on the 

 15th and 19th of June, held forth some 

 unusual features and the following is 

 a brief sketch of the happenings of 

 the homelife of these four birds and 

 their offspring. 



On June 10th of this year shortly af- 

 ter sunrise I found the first pair gath- 

 ering nesting material and flying with 

 it to a small clump of blackberries 

 bordering on the pond. I watched 

 them for probably an hour to be sure 

 of the nest's exact location as the 

 birds in approaching the site used var- 

 ious entrances in the clump, seldom 

 going more than once in the same way. 

 On investigating found the nest placed 

 in a fork of the blackberry about four 

 feet from the ground. This nest the 

 birds continued to work on during the 

 whole of the day and about half of the 

 following day. About this time a pair 

 of Maryland Yellowthroats also adopt- 

 ed the site as their future home and 

 began building a nest about ten feet 

 from the Buntings. The Buntings re- 

 sented this intrusion very much and 

 left their half completed structure 

 and flew off about two hundred feet 

 and commenced anew to erect another 

 nest. This one they completed on the 

 15th and by the 20th the set of five 

 pale bluish eggs was complete. The 

 period of incubation consumed thir- 

 teen days and was performed wholly 

 by the female, the male being seen 

 near the nest only twice during the 

 thirteen days. The young of this 

 brood progressed very rapidly under 

 the careful feeding of both of the par- 

 ents and left the nest eleven days af- 

 ter emerging from the shells. On 

 the fourteenth day two of the young- 

 sters fell prey to a prowling black- 

 snake and on the fifteenth day another 

 of the young birds was found dead 

 having apparently broken its neck in 

 attempting to fly. The other two grew 

 to a stage when they could care for 

 themselves and roved about with the 

 parents until the 20th of August at 

 which time the whole group disappear- 

 ed from the vicinity. This brood was 

 quite different from the other brood 

 in that they always were to be found 



