18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



In the present paper, it is my intention merely to speak of 

 the bird in its relation to the Delaware Valley. With this object 

 first in view, I soon became convinced that it would be fully 

 worth while to collect all our literature relating to its history in 

 the east Atlantic region with a view to discover, if possible, the 

 causes of its extirjjation. This larger subject it is j^roposed to 

 touch upon in a future paper. 



A few words more regarding my personal experience with the 

 bird in our State. A year or two before I ever saw one, Mr. 

 Collins had written to me of it as one of the prizes of his local- 

 ity. He was about seventeen years old at that time, a year or 

 two my senior, and had recently been entrusted with one of his 

 deceased father's guns. This was cause of much envy, as I had 

 not been allowed the use of any more effective weapon against 

 the poor birds than a "slap-jack." Armed with his gun and a 

 copy of the original quarto edition of Wilson's Ornithology, 

 my good friend soon added the Dickcissel to his catalogue of 

 known rarities. 



Three or four pairs of breeding birds seemed to be the 

 total of one season's observations in that vicinity and when we 

 went farther away there were none to be found. I remember 

 seeing the bird on only three or four occasions, and then only 

 when the male mounted a telegraph pole or v.'ire along the Cas- 

 tor road and sang his tireless two-by-three ditty with such pro- 

 voking regularity that I could not long refrain from firing a 

 stone at him, in spite of my friend's warning to spare him till 

 we could find the much-coveted and rarely-discovered nest. 

 Collins often sat on a fence rail for hours and days in the hot 

 June sun watching a pair of these birds as they capered around 

 the grass fields with the double intention of rearing a brood and 

 fooling him as to the whereabouts of their nests. Frequent 

 were his letters to me touching upon this topic, and if he found 

 one nest in a season he was happy. They usually nested in a 

 full-blown tussock of daisies or the narrow-leaved dock in the 

 open grass fields reserved for mowing. Their nests were placed 

 on or near the ground and the eggs secured were always blue, 

 lacking the subdued spots and lines reported by other observers 

 as sometimes occurring, a condition denied by some but well 

 proven by good authorities in oology. 



