140 Thk Wilson Bulletin — No. 88 



one hundred and ten of the birds, always singly or in pairs. Tliey were 

 never seen away from timber. 



A few more were noted during the latter part of the moutli, but by the 

 end of March the migration had apparently ceased, leaving only a few, 

 a very few birds as summer residents. 



37. Planesticiis migratorius migratorius. Eobiu. — A few Avinter with 

 us, but they are becoming scarcer year by year {via pots). Frequent 

 the Avoodlands along the bayous, Avhere they are very shy. On March 1 

 a flock of some seventy-five was observed just west of the city, by far 

 the largest tlock I have noted in years. Then a few on the 21st and 

 28th of March and the 4th of April; and on April 26th the last, two 

 lone birds, were observed. 



THE PINE SISKIN BREEDING IN IOWA. 

 By W. J. Hayward and T. C. Stephens.* 



The joy of seeing and identifying a new bird is exciting 

 and satisfying, but to find a pair of migratory birds building 

 a nest in a tree in your front yard, when to the best of your 

 knowledge the rest of the species were busy with this opera- 

 tion in the pine forests 500 or 1,000 miles to the north of us, 

 is more exciting and more interesting. When my young 

 neighbor, Ralph Whitmer, called my attention to a nest Mon- 

 day, April 13, 1914, in a pine tree 15 feet from his father's 

 front porch, 1 knew something unusual had happened in bird 

 land. 



In late February and early March a new bird song more 

 musical than the Blue Bird's contralto carol and more inspir- 

 ing than the Robin's "cheerily, cheerily," had come to me on 

 the frosty morning air. It was a new song to me, as it not 

 only had in it the freshness of the first south wind of spring, 

 but the tenderness and sympathy of the summer bird songs 

 as well. A half hour of quiet study with field glass and bird 

 guide convinced me that ray first harbinger of spring was 

 the Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus). A flock of twenty-five or 



* Part I by INIr. Hayward, Part II by Jlr. Stephens. 



