2 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 50. 



thorn, and the hindquarters of his prey were some times found 

 in the trees after he left. 



Toward the last of February the call of the Prairie Horned 

 Lark comes up from the adjoining- fields, and it is not long be- 

 fore our Robins and Phcebes return to us. None of our birds 

 haye ever been marked, but a neighbor had a male Robin that 

 "the fool with a gun" deprived of a foot. This bird with his 

 mate for two years has nested in her yard. Will another spring- 

 time bring him back is a problem soon to be solved. 



We feel very certain that some of our birds return year after 

 year. Several Phcebes stay about for four or five weeks, but 

 at nesting-time it is but one pair that remains to occupy the old 

 nest in the barn that has been the birthplace of so many 

 Phcebes. A crack in the flooring above the nest affords a fine 

 opportunity for observing Dame Phoebe's method of raising a 

 family. She does a little refitting of the nest every spring, and 

 on an early day in May lays her first egg. Every morning 

 thereafter between five and nine o'clock an egg is added to the 

 clutch until five jewel-like treasures are to be found. It has 

 been a source of interest to notice the variation in the periods 

 of incubation ; that some broods remain longer in the nest than 

 others ; that sometimes eight and again ten days elapse from 

 the time the nest is deserted by the first brood before Phcebe 

 lays the first egg of her second set. To watch her five little 

 ones go to bed night after night on the lowest branch of an 

 apple tree has been an interesting experience. Mr. Phcebe 

 must have taken these young ones to another summer resort, 

 since they disappeared from Weedseed Inn about the time 

 Mother Phoebe began her second sitting. 



For several years this hostelry has been the home of a pair 

 of Brown Thrashers. They arrive very early in May, and 

 about the middle of that month the first egg is laid. For the 

 past two seasons their first nest for the year has been in a lilac 

 bush about fifteen feet from the house: the same nest being 

 occupied both years. Possibly they might feel that "the world 

 is out of joint" if no human being peeped into their nest each 

 day. 



Then there is the Flicker's hole in the barn. It has been 

 there a long time, for it is remembered that he is now a large 

 lad who as a little fellow once asked, "Doctor, where do the 



