THE OOLOGIST 



78 



f'row, Bobolink, Cowbird, Red-winged 

 Blackbird, Meadowlark, Orchard 

 Oriole, Baltimore Oriole, Bronzed 

 Grackle, ^Goldfinch, Vesper Sparrow, 

 Grasshopper Sparrow, White-crowmed 

 Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, 

 Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, 

 Song Sparrow, Chewink, Cardinal, In- 

 digo Bunting, Scarlet Tanager, Purple 

 Martin, Barn Swallow, Rough-winged 

 Swallow, Cedar Waxwing, Red-eyed 

 Vireo, Warbling Vireo, *Yellow-throat- 

 ed Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, *Black 

 and White Warbler, Worm-eating 

 Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, *Gol- 

 den-winged Warbler, Nashville Warb- 

 ler, Tennessee Warbler, Parula Warb- 

 ler, *Cape May Warbler, Yellow Warb- 

 ler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, 

 'Magnolia Warbler, 'Cerulean Warb- 

 ler, *Chestnut-sided Warbler, *Bay- 

 breasted Warbler, Black-poll Warbler, 

 Bla'ckburnian Warbler, *Black-throat- 

 ed Green Warbler, Ovenbird, Northern 

 Water-thrush, Louisiana Water-thrush, 

 *Kentucky Warbler, Maryland Yellow- 

 throat, Yellow-breasted Chat, Hooded 

 Warbler, Canadian Warbler, *Redstart, 

 ••'Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Bewick's 

 Wren, House Wren, Tufted Titmouse, 

 Chickadee, Rubj^-crowned Kinglet, 

 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, *Wood Thrush. 

 Gray-cheeked Thrush, '^Olive-oacked 

 Thrush, *Wilson's Thrush, Robin. 

 Total: ninety-seven species. 



Rudyerd Boulton, 



Beaver, Pa. 



THE HAUNTS OF POOR-WILBER 



Yes, I did find Poor Will eggs. I 

 found them twice. And once did I 

 find a pair of downy young; so strik- 

 ingly, well-night startlingly, color-pro- 

 tected and their gravelly, flint-pebbly 

 environ. 



Shall I tell you about it? Here, in 

 Northeastern Kansas is a condition 

 paradisic for the Poor Will. There 

 are wide, rather high hills, clad, even 



yet, with their primeval boskage. In 

 late May and in June the slopes are 

 gay with thistles and night-shade and 

 wonderful vetches and cone-flowers. 

 And everywhere, on the crest and on 

 downward slope, are sumacs, three- 

 foot, four-foot, good covert for sitting 

 Poor-Wills. Better, yet, for this ex- 

 ceedingly primitive nester, are out- 

 croppings of flint-rock; with sharp, 

 and with rounded pebbles, without 

 number. 



' Deep below the hills are broad graz- 

 ing valleys. At the lowest depth of 

 these is an eroded dry creek bed. A 

 cluster of cottonwood and soft maple 

 trees, planted generations ago by man, 

 shelters the nest homes of Mourning 

 Dove, Kingbird and Flicker. On the 

 slopes, near at hand, a few Sparrows 

 are brooding This day, at the end of 

 May, Grasshopper, Lark Finch, Hen- 

 slow, and Meadow Larks mellowly 

 pipe, (it is the Eastern form); and an 

 occasional Night Ha'wk sweeps easily 

 overhead. In the little "draws," all 

 bristling with killickinic, plum-bush 

 and, (but I'm no botanist), one may 

 hear, almost invariably, the fussy, 

 fidgety call of the Bell Vireo; (the 

 while some pirate Cowbird is watch- 

 ing for a likely Vireo nest). 



It is amid such environ as this that 

 I search annually for Poor Will eggs. 

 (And, mostly, I take it out in hunt- 

 ing!) My Marshall County Poor Wills 

 appear to be unlike other people's Poor 

 Wills, or else somebody indiscreetly 

 lied! 



To prove it: One first-of-June morn- 

 ing, before the heat of the day began, I 

 set out from town, across a corn field, 

 through a pear orchard, into a barbed- 

 wire fence, then up a' pasture slope, 

 on I went, thrashing the weeds and the 

 sumacs, as I reached the "likely'- 

 areas. Just beyond the water reser- 

 voir, and just at the crest of a high 

 hill, at one stroke of my twelve-foot 

 "wand," up there fluttered a female 



