THE OOLOGIST 



857 



they utter a soft bubbling whistle. 

 During migration, one may clearly 

 hear those sweet notes from birds 

 traveling beyond the limits of human 

 vision. 



They migrate from here to South 

 America, but have not been seen by 

 any reliable ornithologist down there 

 on account of hardly ever being in the 

 open, which makes observation also 

 exceedingly difficult up here. For 

 years we have tried our best to locate 

 their nest, and this spring we were 

 rewarded with success. In a dry pas- 

 ture we found about six Upland Plov- 

 er, and by walking up and down, flush- 

 ed a female from the nest containing 

 four finely marked eggs, size, 1.80 x 

 l.TiO. Their color being creamy buff 

 or white, spotted with reddish brown 

 or chocolate, chiefly at larger end. 



In order to complete this description 

 as far as possible we tried our best 

 to obtain a pair of birds and several 

 young, and finally found a dry meadow 

 close to two tracks of a much fre- 

 quented freight line of the New York 

 Central railroad. The coal soot of the 

 constantly passing day and night 

 trains imparted itself to the surround- 

 ing vegetation and the constant mov- 

 ing of the Plover through the weeds 

 gave the ])lumage a dirty greyish ap- 

 pearance, but the Taxidermist succeed- 

 ed in cleaning them as shown in the 

 group. 



We almost stepped on one of the 

 young ones; they squatted before us 

 without moving and looked like toads. 



The Upland Plover is increasing in 

 this locality, on account of the diffi- 

 culty to find them. 



I have seen a great many adult and 

 young Solitary Sandpipers within the 

 last few days, and hoi)e to succeed to 

 find their nest. 



Ottomar Reinecke. 

 Buffalo, X. Y. 



Failure to Find Nests of Passenger 

 Pigeon. 



Twenty to thirty years ago the Pas- 

 senger Pigeon (Ectopistes Migrator- 

 ius) nested in this region by the mil- 

 lions, according to the information 

 which 1 have obtained from the oldest 

 inhabitants. These same inhabitants 

 say they used to go into the Blue Ridge 

 mountains, which are only a very 

 short distance from here, and kill 

 large bags full of birds in a very few 

 hours. Today not one of these pigeons 

 can be found; they have disappeared, 

 not being able to withstand the great 

 slaughter to which they were subject- 

 ed. 



My brother and I have conducted a 

 careful search this season for nests of 

 pigeons, in which we have covered 

 several hundred acres of the wooded 

 land of this section of North Caro- 

 lina, but have not found any nests, 

 nor have we seen a single Passenger 

 Pigeon. This convinces us that nests 

 of the pigeon are not to be found in 

 this section, while back farther in the 

 mountains a nest might be found if 

 searched for in the i)roper season. 



Next season we expect to make a 

 search into the Blue Ridge, but it is 

 doubtful whether we will find any 

 nests. 



I am going to spend i)art of the win- 

 ter in Florida, and hope to have some- 

 thing interesting to write about the 

 birds of that state. 



Charles F. Moore. 

 Cliffside, N. C. 



About Nuthatches. 

 'Twas early in May in my favorite 

 grove; with all the acumen I had I 

 strove to find a set of the elusive bird, 

 whose soft nasal quanks you often 

 have heard; the White-bellied Nut- 

 hatch — upside down; half of the 

 time a regular clown; He's an adept 

 at fooling, a deceiver base, for he 



