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THE OOLOGIST. 



ger is past. You pass on and when he 

 is assured that you mean no harm, you 

 will hear his most joyous song as he 

 throws back his head and gushes until 

 it seems his little throat will burst. 



Their nests, I have found in all con- 

 ceivable places— high in the hedge-rows 

 away out of reach, down in the lower 

 branches of raspberry bushes, nestling 

 in the prickly arms of giant thistle- 

 plants, flat on the ground in the midst 

 of clover blossoms. Sometimes woven 

 around and firmly fastened to some 

 large weed-stalk, oftimes loosely 

 placed in the ti-eacherous tops of wav- 

 ing swamp-grass. 



The greater number of first nests are 

 placed in the clover fields and these 

 generally come to grief, for about the 

 time the nest and set are complete and 

 the female begins her task of incuba- 

 tion, the hay-maker ax'rives with his 

 mower and the little homes are de- 

 stroyed. In July of last season, I fol- 

 lowed a mower in a five acre clover 

 field near the village and picked up no 

 less than six nests in which eggs had 

 been bi'oken or dumped out. 



In this way thousands of nests are 

 destroyed each season and the great 

 Dickcissel army is obliged to rebuild. 



They ai'e not easily discouraged, how- 

 ever, and a few hours later may be 

 seen busily engaged in carrying mater- 

 ial for new homes. 



This time they look for a more sub- 

 stantial site and generally their choice 

 falls on the thistle plants which by this 

 date have attained a fair size and are 

 growing in profusion along our open 

 ditches and country highways. There 

 the Dickcissel is comparatively safe and 

 enough families of Spiza americana are 

 successfully reared in the protecting 

 arms of this hardy plant to have appro- 

 priately deserved the name of "Thistle- 

 finch." 



The nesting season extends well 

 through the summer and no fixed rule 

 will cover the reproducing period of 



this interesting bird. During the sea- 

 son of 1896 I found young on May 29th, 

 while several nests near by contained 

 fresh on June 2d. In 1897 I searched in 

 vain during June for nests of this bird 

 and found none earlier than July 2d. 

 This too, seemed to be among the first of 

 the season, for during the month of July 

 I examined over thirty nests all contain- 

 ing fresh to slightly incubated eggs 



The nest is a very neat and compact 

 structure (when placed in other than a 

 ground situation), composed mainly of 

 fine grasses and weed-stems, with oc- 

 casionally a horse hair lining. One es- 

 pecially fine one observed was com- 

 pletely covered with stems of tongue- 

 f^'rass, giving it an artistic effect evi- 

 dently designed for the sole purpose of 

 ornamentation. 



The prettily constructed nests of yel- 

 low sun-dried grasses, nestling in the 

 rich dark green of the thick foliage and 

 holding four dainty pale blue eggs, fur- 

 nished a rare combination of colors. 

 Add to this picture the trim little fe- 

 male and her golden-breasted, black- 

 throated lover and you have one of Na- 

 ture's most beautiful pictures — one of 

 immeasurable and matchless works of 

 art she is ever disclosing to those who 

 would know her secrets. 



Isaac E. Hess, 

 Philo, Ills. 



Oological Favorites. 



I suppose that in the collection of 

 every oologist there are perhaps half a 

 dozen sets that are his particular favor- 

 ites. 



These are not necessarily the rarest 

 or most valuable, but the fact remains 

 that he regards them with particular 

 solicitude. 



In this article I shall give a sketch of 

 three of my favorites, that I took dur- 

 ing a year's visit to Colorado, that par- 

 adise of the oologist. 



On June 2, 1896, Mr. G. D. Emerson 



