THE OOLOGIST 



193 



the instance that opened my eyes to 

 their preying habits. I was retnrn- 

 ing through a part of this swamp af- 

 ter a visit to a small colony of Egrets 

 that I have seen i)rotecting when I 

 came to a colony of Y. C. Nightherons, 

 ninety six nests by actual count. 

 Twenty-lour of these nests had just 

 hatched out as I could see by the egg 

 shells under the nests, and the nests 

 were empty. The old ones were sitting 

 around in the low bushes looking very 

 desolate and the Vultures were sitting 

 up in the tall cypresses all about. 

 While pondering over the empty nests, 

 my attention was attracted by four vul- 

 tures trying to drive an Anhinga from 

 her nest high up in a cypress twenty 

 yards away, but her long neck and 

 needle like beak were too quick to be 

 eluded by the vultures who after a 

 short fight betook themselves off for 

 easier i)rey. 1 immediately concluded 

 the vultures wanted her young, be- 

 cause I had found that all the Anhin- 

 gas in this swamj) had just hatched 

 their eggs. Two days later I return- 

 ed and found the other seventy-two 

 nests of the Nightherons emt)ty, these 

 all had eggs in two days before, most 

 of which were hatching. This in an 

 instance of a whole colony of Night- 

 herons being wi|)ed out. 1 watched 

 this colony for two months and never 

 found them breeding again. Possibly 

 the vultures got into this nasty habit 

 of eating young birds by having so 

 much of this class of food put before 

 them by the murderous plumers, 

 who by their ruthless destruction of 

 the i)lume herons, left millions of 

 starving young to the tender mercy of 

 vultures, etc. 1 had already noted a 

 decrease in the number of Nightheron 

 in my territory and now attribute 

 this to the preying vultures. 

 The great number of vultures here 

 do not seem to be suffering from want 

 of food, because a few i)airs I skinned 

 this season had fat on them like a 

 well fed chicken. I gave some of this 

 fat to my negro laborers who have a 

 superstition that •"buzzard grease" 

 rubbe<l on the hands, makes them slick 

 and unable to be beaten in a "skin 

 game." 



In the two hundred sets or there- 

 about that I examined this year, I 

 found only one really abnormal set, 

 this was one with a runt egg. This 

 set measured as follows, 1.7.'. x 1.:'.0; 



and 2.95 x 1.9.5. The average of about 

 fifty sets was 3.00 x 1.95. This species 

 of vulture usually use a hollow log as 

 nesting site, failing this the next favor- 

 able site is a thick clump of palniet- 

 toes so thick that a wandering hog 

 cannot penetrate. Seventy-five i)er 

 cent will use these two kinds of sites, 

 the balance, any old place that offers 

 a safe retreat from hogs and is some- 

 what private. I know of six pairs 

 using a sort of cave under an ui)rooted 

 tree, all seeming to live in i)erfect har- 

 mony. I have never found a Turkey 

 Vulture nesting with this species, al- 

 tho I have heard that they sometimes 

 do so. February 10th is the earliest 

 date I have ever seen eggs and August 

 5th is the latest date. 



O. E. Baynard. 



THE OLIVE-SIDED FLY-CATCHER 

 IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



Thousands of acres of land in War- 

 ren, Forest. Elk and McKean Counties 

 is wild mountain land and practically 

 uninhabited. 



A number of tracts of vii-gin forest 

 of giant hemlock, pine, beech, etc., 

 still stand. The rest is more or less 

 lumbered over. Some of this deforest- 

 ed region is springing up into a sec- 

 ond-growth of mostly hardwood tim- 

 Ixr. Large areas have been fire- 

 swei't until nothing nnich but huckle- 

 berry brush, sweet fern and rattle- 

 snakes can exist. Again vast areas 

 are an almost impenetrable jungle of 

 i)en'y-brush, second growth of ;ill 

 kinds, laurel, etc. As this region lies 

 high (2000 feet and better) and is well 

 watered, it offers a fine home for 

 many of the more northern breeders 

 among the warblers, thrushes, etc. 



Among the very rarest of these 

 more northern birds is the Olive-sided 

 P^lycatcher. For its summer home it 

 chooses a place that has not been too 

 closely cut off but where huge stubs 

 are standing about with more or less 

 living timber and wjili numerous small 

 er hemlocks. 



The l)irds, espt'cdally the niiili's. 



