THE OOLOGIST. 



27 



uisT Will comply v/itli Mr. 1 oster s re- 

 .quest, as their notes and observations 

 anay be of considerable value to him.- 



Ed.] 



An Albino Blue Jay. 



While visiting a brother naturalist at 



Grinnell, I.)wa, a sh..rt time since, he 



interested me considerably by bnnonng 



iu a white Blue Jay. As it might interest 



some of tlie readers of the Oologist I 



will give a description of him. The 



Jay was presenled to Mr. Wm. Berry, of 



Grinnell, Iowa, by his br.>ther-in-law, 



Mr Geo. B. Earp, of Monmouth, 111. A 



neighbor of Mr. Earp found it in a nest 



in their front yard. When hrst hatched 



was perfectly white with pmk eyes 



There were three others in the nest, but 



they were blue like the parent bu-d. is 



full grown now and in full plumage 



which is all white except the wings and 



tail, which have a very light tmge of 



blue with a little darker shade of blue 



where it is black in other Jays;_ also a 



band of blue around topknot, with a li - 



tie patch of blue at the base o bill 



where it black in other Jays. Bill ami 



legs perfectly white, eyes pink. He_ is 



coufmed in a cage but seems to enjoy 



himself as well as though at home in 



the woods. 



R. D. Goss, 



New Sharon, Iowa. 

 Blackbirds by the Million. 



I read with much interest the com- 

 munication of Neil F..Bosson, Medina 

 N. y., and was especially uupressed 

 with it as I do not believe there is any- 

 thing at all strange in it. The black- 

 l3irds are merely going to their roost 

 which in some localities cover many 

 hundreds of acres. Now as if in inten- 

 tional contradiction of the intimation 

 of Mr. Posson when he says "always 

 North-east" on Sunday evening, Nov. 

 24 '89. I saw a drove of blackbirds 

 nu'mbering up among the hundreds of 



thousands Hying directly South-east. 



The blaek line reached from far in the 



N-W to the S-E, as far as the eye could 



reach, and they continued to come for 



over an hour, until after sundow^n. 



Tuesday morning during a driving rain 



the drove lessened at least two-thirds; 



came away from south-east and were 



going due north-east. 



Nov. 27, '89. ^^ ^^ 



W. L. McDaniel, 



Mincola, Tex. 



Nest of the Texan Bobwhite. 



(Volinus virginianus texanus.) 



On the 12th of May, as I was careless- 

 ly sauntering across a meadow, I ac- 

 cidentally came acro.ss a nest of this 

 species. 



It was the most beautiful nest that 1 

 ever saw of this species, or 1 may well 

 say, of any other kind. It was on the 

 ground in grass about six inches high. 

 The parent bird had made a depression 

 in the ground, and had constructed her 

 nest. The nest was oven shaped and 

 made of grass closely interwoven. It 

 was fastened lirmly to the hole by being 

 interwoven with the neighboring grass. 

 It w^as situated about forty feet from 

 the woods. I was not long exploring 

 its contents. In it I found two eggs. I 

 came back four days after, and two more 

 eggs were in. This time I caught the 

 parent bird on the nest, so there is no 

 doubt to the identity. I came back 

 tive days later and found three more 

 eggs in it. I came back twice to see if 

 she had not finished the set, and find- 

 ing both times there were no more eggs 

 in°it and that the birds were gone. I 

 took the seven eggs. They measured 

 1.18X.94, 1.19X.94, 1.20x.98, 1.22x.9.5, 

 1.48X.91, 1.49X.945, 1.53x.95. 



The last one was twisted at the 

 smaller end, It also has a bubble on 

 the the smaller end, caused by a 

 deficiency of lime. All the eggs are 

 pyriform, but some, more than others. 

 LEWIS Knox. 



Lee Co., Tex. 



