THE OOLOGIST. 



75 



to their sharp bills. Some times they 

 choose some tall broken off tree trunk 

 forty or fifty feet high, and dig the 

 cavity five or six feet from the 

 ground, thereby leaving thirty or for- 

 ■ty feet of the trunk above the nest. 

 I have seen one built in the hollow 

 of a small stump standing in a field. 

 The stump was about eight inches 

 high with a cavity in the top extend- 

 ing downward to the level of the 

 ground; in this cavity the nest 

 was built, and the eggs were 

 about one inch above the level of 

 the ground. The depth of the cavity 

 is from five to twelve inches, usually 

 about seven. It is constructed with 

 a small entrance, and is enlarged at 

 the bottom to receive the nest of 

 moss, cotton, wool, fine inner bark 

 of trees, feathers, and occasionally 

 some rabbit's fur. The eggs range 

 from four to seven in number; five 

 or six is the usual number, seven are 

 rarer, but sets of seven are not un- 

 common. 



R. PEARCE SMITHWICK, 

 Norfolk, Virginia. 



OWLS. 



The American Barn Owl. 

 Among the cliffs on the Salt Fork 

 River in Grant county, Oklahoma, the 

 Barn Owl makes its home. Last 

 spring a small party made a trip to 

 these cliffs for the purpose of obtain- 

 ing a few sets of the Barn Owl. On 

 the sixth of April we arrived and com- 

 menced letting down rope ladders and 

 making them fast to some trees. So 

 the next morning I descended to a 

 ledge on which I had seen an owl 

 the night before. From this ledge I 

 saw several holes but they were near- 

 ly all out of reach, so I had to go back 

 and let the ladder down in another 

 place. This time I had better luck 

 and got two fine sets, one of seven 

 and one of eight. They were pure 



white and somewhat rough. During 

 the morning we collected fifteen sets 

 and then left for home. The nests 

 were in holes in. the cliffs about ten 

 feet from the top and about three 

 feet back. At the farther end the 

 burrow was enlarged and here a few 

 twigs were gathered together. The 

 average size of the eggs was 1.70 x 

 1.29 and ranged from four to eight 

 in number. 



U. WORCESTER. 



Old Nests on New Sites. 



Mr. E. J. Dietrich's interesting com- 

 munication in the January issue re- 

 minds me of several cases that have 

 come under my notice where the 

 smaller birds have built new nests on 

 old ones of the previous year of the 

 same species. 



Phoebe — Four nests — three under 

 bridges and one in a corn crib. 



Anna's Hummingbird — A nest re- 

 ceived from California. The new nest 

 was about half the normal height and 

 the line between the two was sharply 

 defined. 



Red-winged Blackbird — One nest. 

 This was a three-story affair, being 

 three nests representing as many 

 years. 



American Redstart — The nest was 

 placed six feet above the ground in 

 a maple crotch in the thick woods. 



Next comes new nests on old cnes 

 of other species: 



Mourning Dove — The nesi was 

 placed on an old Catbird's nest in a 

 hawthorn bush. 



American Redstrat — The nest was 

 built inside an old Red-eyed Vireo's. 



The foregoing are all I can remem- 

 ber from personal observation (ex- 

 cepting, of course, such species as 

 nest in cavities), but while on the 

 subject I take the liberty to mention 

 a nest immediately rebuilt on the 

 same site. 



