The Oologist. 



VOL. XI. NO. 10. 



ALBION, N. Y., OCT., 1894. 



Whole No. 108 



A Study of Nests- 



In taking up the study of nests, let us 

 consider them first as regards their 

 construction, second as regards their 

 position. 



The materials of a nest, as viewed 

 from the cabinet specimen only, will in 

 a great many cases show from what lo- 

 cation it was taken. For example, a 

 nest of the Baltimore Oriole, in my pos- 

 session, which was taken by the road- 

 side verj'^ near the heart of the town, is 

 composed exteriorily of white twine, 

 yarn and a few red and blue threads, 

 the lining a quantity of horse hair, a 

 chicken feather or two, and a few strips 

 of grape vine bark from a j'ard close 

 by. It will be seen that all these mate- 

 rials could have been procuri'ed in the 

 immediate vicinity of the nest, about 

 the houses and streets. A nest taken 

 on the outskirts of the woods, however, 

 was composed almost entirelj' of fine 

 fibres of milk weed bark, lined with 

 one or two fine black rootlets, and a 

 small piece of thread, all of which 

 could have been procurrecl near the 

 nest. Those nests of the Robin, built 

 near civilization, almost invariably 

 contain some bit of cloth or paper, 

 while those built "far from the haunts 

 of man" ai"e usually cemjjosed of grass, 

 weed stalks and mud. The nests of the 

 Yellow and Black-billed Cuckoos, built 

 early in the season, near oaks and 

 willows, almost invariably have more 

 or less of the catkins of either or both 

 those trees among their materials, those 

 built later in the season lacking them. 

 One nest of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo 

 found after the leaves lifiid fallen, con- 

 tained a piece of newspaper on which 

 a part of the famous liorden murder 

 trial could be plainly deciphered, and 

 as the date August 4th was referred to 



and as a few days at least must have 

 passed between that date and the print- 

 ing and destroying of the paper and 

 this piece being found by the bird, it is 

 safe to say that the nest must have been 

 begun during the second week of Aug- 

 ust, which is rather late nesting for this 

 locality, though probably the pair had 

 had their nest destroyed earlier in the 

 season, for "the malicious urchin" is 

 quite prevalent here. It has been my 

 experience that the nests of the Black- 

 billed Cuckoo are always better built 

 than those of the Yellow-billed species, 

 some nests of the former being almost 

 as good as a rather flimsy Catbird's 

 nest, while those of the latter are often 

 merely a platfoi'm of twigs and a few 

 dry leaves laid loosely together. The 

 latter species also I have noticed will 

 lay its eggs before the nest is quite 

 done, furnishing it after the eggs have 

 been deposited. 



As a final illustration of the point in 

 hand, I take the following from my 

 note book: May 26th. In two separate 

 patches of small hazel bushes about a 

 quarter of a mile apart, I found two 

 Chestnut-sided Warblers' nests and one 

 I)eculiar thing was noticeable in each. 

 The first nest was not far from a much 

 travelled road, and the inside was 

 thickly lined Avith horse hair, which 

 must have been gathered from the road. 

 The second nest, however was over a 

 quarter of a mile from this road, but 

 was not very far from a road through 

 the woods which was not near so much 

 used, and this nest had only about one- 

 third the amount of hair in it that the 

 first nest had, thus showing how the 

 material of the nests was gathered near 

 its situation." And so in the case of 

 several other common birds as the Red- 

 winged Blackbird, Wood Thrush, Chip- 

 ping Sparrow, Least Flycatcher, Red- 



