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THE OOLOOIST 



one taken at Bangor Marcli 18 as well 

 as one at Brewer the same year. Their 

 food while here consists of the buds 

 of the maple, elm, apple and the 

 seeds of those apples which still re- 

 main on the trees, the berries of the 

 mountain ash and similar fruit. 



H. H. Johnson. 



Concerning the Black-throated Bunt- 

 ings of This Locality. 



The Black-throated Bunting (Spiza 

 Americana) started to invade this lo- 

 cality about fifteen years ago and kept 

 returning every spring in increasing 

 numbers to rear its young, nearly al- 

 ways building its nests in bushes or 

 vines off of the ground, until the spring 

 of 1916. That spring they went 

 through here by the thousands but 

 none stayed to nest. In one pasture 

 in the outskirts of town I estimated 

 that three thousand birds stayed until 

 the first part of May and then for some 

 unaccountable reason they all left and 

 this spring not a one stopped at all. 

 The spring of 1916 several pairs stayed 

 in promising localities and I thought 

 they were going to nest but by the 

 latter part of May they were all gone. 

 In the spring of 1915 Mr. George Fin- 

 lay Simmons and myself in our daily 

 walks would find from two or three 

 to a dozen Black-throated Bunting 

 nests so why should they all pass 

 through here the last two springs 

 without a single pair remaining. We 

 had plenty of rain during the spring 

 of 1915 and the wild flowers and cover 

 for the birds were all that could be 

 desired. The grass and field daisies 

 in most pastures was waist high but 

 this spring and the spring of 1916 we 

 had very little rain and consequently 

 very little undergrowth so the drouth 

 of the last two years might be the 

 cause of the Bunting giving us the go- 

 by. 



Elton Perry, D. D. S. 



Austin, Texas, 



UNSPOTTED EGGS OF RED 

 SHOULDERED HAWK 



April 15, 1917 I found a red should- 

 ered hawk's nest placed in a crotch of 

 three limbs in a red oak 60 feet up in 

 a swampy patch of woodland. Putting 

 on my climbers, I reached the nest. It 

 was a crows' nest v/hich had been re- 

 built but was very fiat within. Now 

 this nest which contained three eggs 

 was the first and only one I ever 

 found which contained immaculate 

 eggs. All three were a pale bluish 

 white without spots. One of the eggs 

 measured 2.19 x 1.15. According to 

 Bendire a plain set is very unusual. 

 It is the only set I have found that 

 way. The red-tail often lays plain 

 eggs but not the red-shouldered near 

 Montclair, N. J. I have a large series 

 of photographs of both the eggs and 

 young but as a friend took them with 

 his camera I am not at liberty to have 

 them published. 



Cedric U. Atkinson, 

 Princeton University. 



SUSPENDED NIDIFICATION OF 

 THE YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 



On June 24, 1904, at Frankford, 

 Philadelphia, Pa., I found a Yellow- 

 billed Cuckoo's nest in an alder 

 thicket, situated several feet up in a 

 vine-covered bush, which was not laid 

 in for twenty days or nearly three 

 weeks, not until July 14, when it held 

 two fresh eggs. I visited this nest 

 several times and concluded that it 

 had been deserted and naturally was 

 astonished to find it occupied after 

 the elapsion of almost three weeks. 



Richard F. Miller. 



On the Food of the Marsh Hawk 

 Reading J. H. Bowles "Notes on the 

 Food of Certain Birds of Prey," in the 

 March "Oologist" brought to my mind 

 a certain nest of Marsh Hawk that I 

 found in early June 1915. I had left 

 the eggs intending to get back later 



