148 The Wilson Bulleton — No. 64. 



Owl we must depend for all our August nocturnes. This 

 Marsh Wren sings from any foothold, be it grass-stem, bush, 

 or portions of a fence. He often is seen sitting upon the top of 

 a fence post for many minutes rendering his little songs, and it 

 has been possible to approach within seven feet of him without 

 his omitting a single number. Once when his meadow was 

 being mown he was seen clinging to the last upright grass- 

 stems, keeping just in advance of the moving horses, and all 

 the time he sang. One day early in the month he was caught 

 building one of his dummy nests. As he came up from his 

 nest he sang, flew fifteen feet to his supply-place for material 

 and sang again : thus he passed back and forth, working and 

 singing with unabated energy. 



A watering-place, as a favorite resort, does not meet the pop- 

 ular standard unless it has a summer flirtation. This was fur- 

 nished by a frivolous Flicker that kept two males, sometimes 

 four drumming and bowing and dancing before her all through 

 July, and into August, although these birds were well along in 

 their moult. Two of the courting males are believed to be the 

 same that roost in our barn, and it is one of the evening tasks 

 to see if these lodgers have come in punctually. 



Here, in northeastern Iowa, it is not until August that 

 many of the species settle upon some place for their regular 

 roosts for the remainder of their stay in the north. The Cat- 

 bird and Brown Thrasher every season come into the lilac and 

 snow-ball bushes to spend the night. The Kingbird, with his 

 family, returns to a spruce tree that has been their nesting site 

 for many years. Phoebe finds shelter in the maples along 

 with the most brilliant lodgers of all, four merry Orioles, 

 which, sometimes accompanied by two young birds of the 

 year, come in at night whistling gayly, and depart in the morn- 

 ing in the same tuneful fashion : but no Lady Baltimore is to 

 be seen with them; The birds that retire the earliest and are 

 the last tO' go out in the morning are the Flickers, three of 

 which roost in the barn. They usually come in about a half- 

 hour before sunset and start out a little after sunrise, but occa- 

 sionally their hours are much earlier and later. For several 

 apparently good reasons it is believed that the Flicker that oc- 



