124 



THE OOLOGIST. 



respecting these latter nests and sets 

 are not very satisfactory and can give 

 no definite information regarding 

 them. 



The young marsh wrens usually fre- 

 quents the borders of the marsh, 

 where they allow any intruder to ap- 

 proach quite close, unsuspiciously 

 RICHARD F. MILLER. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



(To be continued) 



Western Black Phoebe. 

 (Sayornis nigricans semiatra.) 



A pair of these interesting little 

 fly-catchers have made their home 

 here for two seasons. They are here 

 for the entire year except for about 

 two (2) months in the winter. They 

 return from their sojourn about the 

 first week of the year. 



They perch on the cone of the 

 barn, on the windmill, on the clothes 

 line, on the limb of a dead fig tree 

 near, the barn. From these places 

 they send out their cry of pewee! 

 wee! wee! constantly and give their 

 tail a bob at every cry. 



At night one of them roosts on 

 a large spike nailed into the side of 

 the house under the veranda roof; 

 the other one roosts in a last year's 

 nest. They are quite helpless at night. 

 One night climbed up among the raf- 

 ters to catch some pigeons and placed 

 my hand into the nest and caught 

 .one of the Phoebes. He made 

 several faint squeals and then 

 tried to get a hold on my hand with 

 his bill. When I let him go he flutter- 

 ed down into the corner and was 

 still there when I left. 



On March 7th they began to build 

 their home. It was a cup-shaped af- 

 fair plastered against a beam of the 

 barn. It was made of pellets of mud 

 mixed with straw and hair. On the 

 11th it was finished, except the lining. 

 For the next few days they carried 



hair and straw up to the nest. They 

 seemed to be in no hurry; they made 

 a trip to the nest, then set in the 

 sun on the fig tree or clothes line 

 waiting for some lunch — in the shape 

 of insects — to fly by. They suddenly, 

 with a cry, they would dart out, you 

 would hear the snap of their beak 

 and they would be back in a twink- 

 ling. I have yet my first time to 

 se an insect escape them. They some 

 times make a second dart, but not 

 often. They invariably return to the 

 place they flew from. 



On the 20th the nest contained 

 one egg, then one little pearly egg- 

 was deposited every day until there 

 were five. Four were pure w r hite, 

 but the fifth was specked with red 

 spots. 



I took the set of eggs and just four 

 days later a pair of house finches re- 

 lined the nest and have raised a brood 

 of these little pests. 



But to return to the phoebe. They 

 went to the end of the barn and in 

 just nine days they had constructed 

 another nest very similar to the first, 

 except not as large. . In this they laid 

 five eggs, one of which had four or five 

 reddish specks. As I had a chance 

 to trade a set I also took these. An- 

 other pair of house finches took 

 charge of this nest. For a little while 

 they took "it easy," then they went 

 to the windmill (which is supported 

 by four 4x6s) and up close to the 

 platform, they made a new nest in 

 which four eggs were laid. They have 

 now hatched and are ready to fly. 



W. J. CHAMBERLIN. 



Snowy Owl South of 40th Degree of 

 Latitude. 



In the April issue of the "Oologist," 

 Mr. Geo. L. Fordyce, in the discus- 

 sion anent the early visits of the 

 Snowy Owl, asks for information re- 

 garding the occurrence of this huge 

 bird near the 41st parallel of north 



