THE OOLOGIST 



281 



left there; the handle projected about 

 three feet out horizontally over the 

 brook, near one end of the bridge, 

 about a yard from the nearest en- 

 trance and within less than a foot of 

 the iloor. Situated upon the flat open 

 handle of the shovel was the Proebe's 

 nest, about as well built structure of 

 Sayornis as I have ever examined. Not 

 a bit of material projected through the 

 holes in the handle, to v/hich it was 

 securely plastered with clay. 



It held five eggs about half incu- 

 bated. When last seen, on June 6th, 

 the nest contained young birds and 

 I have no doubt but they were all suc- 

 cessfully raised to maturity in their 

 oddly situated domicile. 



Richard F. Miller. 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



Red-Letter Days in the Country. 



For several years it was my privi- 

 lege to spend two or three days in 

 the latter part of May with friends on 

 a farm in the country. As the farm 

 was fifteen miles from town it was 

 beyond the region infested by the wan- 

 dering pot-hunter from town, who is 

 numerous enough in the vicinity of 

 the city to make the birds inhabiting 

 that section very shy even though he 

 is unable to exterminate them entire- 

 ly. In addition wandering Saturday 

 squads of small boys with sling-shots 

 and air-rifles keep our suburban bird 

 population in a state of unrest al- 

 though they may not do very much 

 execution. At the i)resent time the 

 collecting of birds' eggs is not very 

 popular among the boys so the birds 

 do not suffer so much from that cause 

 as in former years. The gospel of 

 bird protection is being spread 

 through the press and the public 

 schools, and the seed is taking root. 



The days on the farm were some of 

 the most enjoyable that I have ever 

 spent. My friends did not handicap 



me by trying to entertain me but al- 

 lowed me to spend every precious min- 

 ute out-of-doors, only insisting that I 

 come to the house in time for the 

 bountiful meals and the welcome bed 

 at night. The following is the story 

 of one of these trips and I hope it 

 will prove to be of interest to the 

 readers of this paper. It contains no 

 records of rare finds or unusual occur- 

 rences, but shows what can be accom- 

 plished near home by a busy man dur- 

 ing a couple of "days off" spent in a 

 favorable locality. The notes are 

 copied verbatim from my record book. 

 May 29th, 1899. Fair day with north- 

 west wind. At 3:55 p. m. I left via the 

 R. I. & P. Ry. for Preemption where 

 I arrived at 5:10. From there I rode 

 with a farmer north about two and 

 one-half miles to the farm of Thomas 

 Montgomery, which was my destina- 

 tion. His i)lace consists mostly of 

 ploughed fields and pasture land cov- 

 ered with "second growth" timber, 

 part of the latter being pretty thick 

 with hazel and wild blackberry un- 

 dergrowth. A hollow runs the whole 

 length of the farm from north to south 

 near its western boundary, the very 

 small stream at the bottom of this 

 hollow usually being dry in the sum- 

 mer. This hollow is about a hundred 

 yards wide, the land at each side ris- 

 ing rather abruptly and from the point 

 on each side where the slope begins 

 is covered with timber. Near the house 

 on the north side is a piece of only 

 partly timbered land used as a pas- 

 ture, while around the house are a 

 number of shade trees of different va- 

 rieties. On one of these, a choke-cher- 

 ry, was a deserted Blue Jay's nest 20 

 feet up, containing two Incubated eggs. 

 The nest originally contained 4 eggs 

 but 2 of them had disappeared. On 

 a cross-beam just under the roof in 

 the stable was a Pewee's nest. Five 

 eggs had been laid in it but one of 



