216 



THE OOLOGIST. 



The nest was uot 100 yards from the 

 bluegrass, and her line of flight pointed 

 directly to it. 



She placed the nest on a drooping 

 limb of a small beech tree, I placed it 

 in my collection, which was awarded 

 the premiums at the County Fairs. 



The next year I found three nests, all 

 on beech trees not 50 yards apart, and 

 in plain view of each other. Two were 

 on the same tree and within ten feet of 

 each other; one, an old one. The bird 

 was carrying material from this old 

 nest to the limb spoken of, (ten feet 

 away) when I discovered her. The 

 new nest was only begun and not 

 visible. Eight days latter I took nests 

 and eggs, though the old nest was half 

 used up. Three weeks latter I found 

 this third nest, wliich contained highly 

 incubated eggs, and strange as it may 

 seem, this tree also sported a nest of 

 the Acadian Flycatcher, containing 

 four eggs, one of the Cowbird. 



In the spring of 1888 I came to Ark., 

 and being little acquainted with the 

 bird, I knew not where to seek for 

 nests, there being no beech trees. All 

 was hill and hollow, clothed in wild 

 timber, the beech being replaced by 

 black oak, post oak and sweet gum . 

 The birds are much more numerous 

 here, however, and I knew that by dili- 

 gence I could solve the i^roblem. 



While making pine boards for shing- 

 les one day in July, I was awarded by 

 seeing a bird fly into a small black oak. 

 The nest was soon found with two 

 newly hatched young. This was as 

 great a find as my first, for, I thought 

 I had not only learned where to find 

 them here, but had discovered the kind 

 of tree most preferred. During the 

 balance of that summer and the next I 

 searched in vain for more. I traced 

 birds up hundreds of times, only to find 

 them occupied in sucking a sweet suc- 

 culent juice which oozes from knots or 

 injured places in the bark of the black 

 and red oaks. Thi.s, they are vei-y fond 



of, and I think, subsist largely on it 

 during the dry hot months when there 

 are fewest flowers. The cause of this 

 instance I know not. Insects also visit 

 these parts, and the wasps give the 

 birds much trouble. Several birds visit 

 the same trees, going constantly from 

 one to another. 



On June 16, 1890, while going up a 

 steep hillside, my attention was at- 

 tracted by a bird overhead. In less 

 than five minutes, the female, which I 

 had scared away, returned and alighted 

 in her nest which was in the fork of a 

 white oak limb, twentj* feet above the 

 road. This bird was particularly wild, 

 for at every stir of the feet she flew 

 away, and each time she returned, in- 

 stead of lighting on the edge of the nest 

 first, she would dab down into it, with 

 as much ease as she could light on a 

 limb. I secured the eggs a few days 

 later by my ladder process. 



On the 18th, while watering my horse 

 in a little stream, I hearil a bird l^ehind 

 me, and on looking around saw a bird 

 dart away from her nest a few feet and 

 return, as if either catching or driving 

 away insects. These operations Avero 

 repeated without the slightest notice of 

 my presence. She even remained on 

 her nest while I climbed the ti-ee, (a 

 small red oak four inches in diameter) 

 took another short excursion, giving 

 me an excellent oportuuit^' to view the 

 eggs, then returned and remained till I 

 had cut the small limb nearly in two, 

 and lowered it upon another branch, 

 when she flew to an adjoining tree- 

 The nest was twelve feet high. 



The 19th, was another "lucky day" 

 for me. While strolling on the river 

 bank, I chanced to see a bird in a small 

 sweet gum tree. She soon found her 

 nest, which was on a drocjping limb ten 

 feet from the ground, and overhanging 

 the water. Finding the complement to 

 be complete, the limb was cut partly off 

 near the body, and weighted down in 

 reach from below. 



On going down, I found the eggs 



