Sherman — Notes from a Watering Place. 147 



King Rail is an infrequent visitor, and a hope is cherished that 

 some day there may be seen the Yellow and the Little Black 

 Rail. 



So far as known the nesting data of the Red-winged Black- 

 bird for August were nearly the sanie for last year as for this. 

 On the first day of the month in each year there remained two 

 occupied nests, in one of which the birds were just ready to 

 leave. In the former year the nestlings were deserted, either 

 because the mother was killed or she was seized with the wan- 

 derlust and left them to follow the rest oi her tribe, all of 

 which had departed except the owners of the other occupied 

 nests. This year there was a flocking of Redwings in the 

 meadow. So unobtrusive was their coming that one scarcely 

 realized that a hundred or more of them were present, except 

 when the arrival of a Marsh Hawk or some other disturbing 

 element brought them up into the air. The flock did not re- 

 main for the night, but a little before and after sundown 'the 

 birds in companies of twenty to forty would fly eastward, per- 

 haps tO' some island in the Mississippi River. In the morning 

 they came drifting in, a few at a tinie. 



The month has not been without its bird music. Of fifteen 

 species observed in a half hour early on August 5, eleven were 

 heard singing or giving their call notes. Famous singers have 

 given a series of farewell concerts. Almost every day, with 

 surprising regularity, an hour or two before noon, from a 

 dozen to a score and a half of Bobolinks have gathered in the 

 willow trees and have sung together. There is little sugges- 

 tion of the rapturous solos of June in their twittering music. 

 It, like their plumage, has undergone a great change. This 

 year a decided decrease in many of the species has been ob- 

 served, but the greatest has been among the Bobolinks that in 

 the spring were no more than a third as numerous as in recent 

 years. 



When the House Wren has a brooding mate near he may ri- 

 val the Song Sparrow in the number of songs delivered each 

 day, but the most tireless singers of them all is the Short- 

 billed Marsh Wren, whose rattling little ditty may be heard 

 every hour of the day and night. Upon him and the Screech 



