^12 



THE OOLOGIST 



Some Nesting Birds of the Palisades 

 Interstate Park 



Paper No. 3 

 By P. M. Silloway. 



18. Redstart. — On June 12 a nest of 

 the Redstart was found in the top of 

 an apple tree alongside a stone wall 

 bordering the public road in front of 

 the Guest House. The nest was made 

 in an upright crotch, about twelve feet 

 from the ground, and on this date it 

 contained two eggs, though the female 

 had not yet begun incubation. The 

 apple tree was a lure for Boy Scouts 

 passing along the road, and we are 

 sorry to state that the nest was de- 

 serted before the full complement of 

 eggs were deposited. On June 18 I 

 noted that no female was in evidence 

 near this nest, though a male sang 

 persistently within a hundred feet 

 radius of the spot, his principal utter- 

 ance being "Weet eweet eweet eweet." 

 Later in the season I collected this 

 nest, with two eggs addled. 



19. Whip-poor-will. — On the morn- 

 ing of June 14, while exploring the 

 ridge of scrub growth across from the 

 Guest House, I chanced to disturb a 

 female Whip-poor-will in the low 

 laurel shrubs. She fluttered up weak- 

 ly, half-scrambling over the low veg- 

 etation, stopping to face me with half- 

 spread, drooping wings, acting much 

 like a small owl. She kept uttering a 

 mournful, gutteral call like "Qui qui 

 qui." Frequently she fluttered up from 

 the shrubs and hovered momentarily 

 near me, with flapping wings and gut- 

 teral calls, never getting more than 

 ten or twelve feet from me. I began 

 careful search around the place she 

 had first fluttered from, but could find 

 neither eggs nor young. 



Going some little distance back in 

 the direction from which I had ap- 

 proached the spot, I sat down in plain 

 view of the fancied location of the 



nest. After a few minutes of patient 

 endurance of insect pests, I was en- 

 couraged by seeing the bird flutter 

 over the place I had in view, and she 

 dropped into the laurels with an ex- 

 pression of contentment, the charac- 

 teristic "Qui." 1 hurried to the spot, 

 and again the same performance oc- 

 curred, still I could find nothing that 

 I was expecting. Again I withdrew, 

 and again the female fluttered over 

 and settled down with contented call. 

 For the third time I hurried to the 

 place, and after diligent scanning of 

 the dead leaves of the scrub floor, I 

 spied a brownish-yellow chick blink- 

 ing sleepily on the leafy carpet, clad 

 in fuzzy down, and giving evidence of 

 its consciousness of my presence by a 

 faint chick-like, plaintive "qui-eh." It 

 v/as lying helplessly on the dead 

 leaves betwen stems of low laurel, 

 v.'ith no suggestion of a nest. Upon 

 further search I found another downy 

 chick about a yard away from the 

 first. Both younglings lay with closed 

 eye-lids, but opened them when their 

 attention was momentarily aroused. 

 Without disturbing the chicks, I has- 

 tened away for my camera, and re- 

 turned to the place in about half an 

 hour, finding the youngsters as I had 

 left them, mothered by the female. 



On the next afternoon I went over 

 to the place where I had found the 

 little Whip-poor-will famly. She was 

 in the same little area, but had moved 

 about twenty feet from the exact spot 

 where she was hovering her young on 

 the preceding day. Since I had found 

 the two young somewhat separated at 

 my first discovery of them, I conclud- 

 ed that the change of location was 

 due to the traveling of the young, for 

 it appeared that they were just at the 

 stage when they were disposed to 

 crawl or fiutter on the ground in pref- 

 erence to remaining in one particular 

 place, and at no time did I find the two 



