BULLETIN No. 35 45 



that is more often uttered from the ground than above it, having 

 watched it for hours together walking, running and feeding 

 amidst the terns, mandrake, skunk cabbage and spicewood. 



Frank L, Burns, ^erwyn, Pmna. 



AN Open QustiON. — Is there anything like morality among 

 the birds ? Have the birds any genuine sense of obligation 

 where other birds are concerned, or does might make right with 

 tliem universally ? These questions have been chasing each 

 other through my mind of late, and have failed to find an an- 

 swer. The other day, as I sat in the edge of the woods rather 

 idly watching the tree-tops for the Warblers, the actions of a 

 female Redstart arrested my attention. Instead of feeding it 

 seemed to be peering about in an anxious manner as it grad- 

 ually ascended from the lower branches of a large oak tree. 

 Some fifty feet up among the branches it stopped in its upward 

 course and circled the tree trunk, always with the same anxious, 

 air. Suddenly it plunged into the midst of a spreading thicket 

 of branches and began working madly at something, which, 

 upon closer inspection, proved to be a half completed nest of a 

 Yellow-throated Vireo. Mrs. Redstart was frantically yanking 

 fibers and cobwebs from the outside of the nest, and soon 

 darted down into the shrubbery with a mouthful of the stolen 

 material for her own nest. 1 have many times seen birds de- 

 stroy old nests for the material which was used in making a new 

 one, but in only a few instances have I seen such robbery as 

 this. 



Lynds Jones, Oberlin, Ohio. 



The Western Grosbeak, Coccothraustus vespertinus 

 montanus, IN COLORADO. — The evening Grosbeak is referred to 

 in Bulletin No. 34, as a rare bird. 1 made its acquantaince (the 

 western form) for the first time this year, and in such numbers 

 as to raise a doubt of its rarity. Walking down a street near 

 Mapleton'Hill, Boulder. Colorado, in February, I was startled 

 by^the discovery of a dozen of them in a small tree. They 

 were apparently very hungry, searching the tree for food, pay- 

 ing no attention to me, though many of them were within six 

 or eight feet of me. Afterwards I saw them daily for several 



