282 



THE OOLOOIST 



It prefers pastures and fields border- 

 ing cultivated land, and I have found 

 it always near a wooded ridge on the 

 southern slopes. The nests are ex- 

 tremely difficult to find. They are lo- 

 cated very rarely by accident or the 

 most diligent searching, but rather by 

 patiently watching the female when 

 she is building the nest or the parents 

 when feeding the young. So very 

 wary are the birds that sometimes it 

 requires hours of watchfulness in con- 

 cealment to ascertain even the direc- 

 tion in which a nest is located. The 

 nest is made of the finest grasses, al- 

 ways domed, generally festooned in 

 front with grass heads, and set either 

 in tufts of grasses or under clumps of 

 weeds completely camouflaged from 

 view. 



Once or twice I have located a nest 

 in a cultivated field, but I have rea- 

 son to suspect that the discovery of a 

 nest, even though it is not disturbed, 

 is a sufficient cause for the bird to 

 desert it. The female does all the 

 work of nestbuilding, and the male 

 keeps an unknown distance from the 

 nest. He rarely sings during the per- 

 iod of incubation near the nest, and 

 then, apparently, only in the early 

 morning. The female leaves the nest, 

 if surprised reluctantly, and after the 

 fashion of a Bob White. I have not 

 yet succeeded however in securing a 

 picture of the bird on the nest. 



During the present season I have 

 collected the nests and eggs of this 

 species as follows: 



May 31 Nest and three fresh eggs. 

 June 1 Nest and four eggs. 

 June 27 One egg from a deserted 

 nest. 



June 30 Nest and four eggs, fresh. 

 July 1 One egg found in a field. 

 No nest in immediate vicinity. 



July 11 Nest and four eggs in typi- 

 cal situation, Eggs were broken by 



carelessness of person in whose care 

 they were left. 



July 21 Nest and four eggs, fresh. 

 *"Birds of Arkansas," pp. 65, 66. 



Eastern Vonnecticut Notes 

 On December 16th, 1918, I had the 

 good fortune of observing at close 

 range a Pleated woodpecker, the first 

 I had ever seen here in the East. I 

 watched with much interest this mag- 

 nificent bird, as it worked very busily 

 on a dead Oak, not more than fifty 

 feet away. I believe this bird to be 

 very rare in Eastern Connecticut. 



The Red Headed Woodpecker is an- 

 other very scarce bird in this part of 

 the state, having seen only two birds 

 in the past ten years, one spring and 

 one fall migrant. 



On May 26th, 1918, I had brought in- 

 to me a typical nest of Kingbird, con- 

 taining four eggs, the same size and 

 shape of the ordinary Kingbird's eggs, 

 only these eggs were entirely without 

 markings. All four eggs being pure 

 white. This is the first Albino eggs 

 of this species I have ever seen. Who 

 has whole sets of Albino Kingbird 

 eggs or other species that have as 

 heavily marked eggs as the Kingbird 

 often does? Are they not very uncom- 

 mon? G. Raymond Barlow. 

 Danielson, Conn. 



An Additional List. 



On page 49, present volume, I have 

 a list of Iowa birds, I saw while at 

 Vinton, Iowa, to which I wish to add 

 the following: 



Barn Swallow — Several. 



English Sparrow — Abundant. 



Catbird — Common. 



Killdeer — Common. 



Northern Water Thrush — One seen. 



Night Hawk — plentiful one evening. 



Black Capped Chickadee — Common. 



Phoebe — Common. 



