74 The Wilson Bulletin.— No. 43. 



very loath to abandon his old home. A marsh where several nest- 

 ed was burned over last April without driving them away. Al- 

 though there were two or three females nesting there at the same 

 time, there was only one male — in fact, there never has been more 

 than one. 



American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis.) — In 1901 two rows of sun- 

 flower seeds were sown in my orchard. In consequence, that sum- 

 mer I found five inhabited Goldfinches' nests there, and several 

 empty ones that had been used that season, while flocks of Gold- 

 finches were to be seen everywhere. Last year no sunflowers were 

 planted, and the result was that I found only one Goldflnch's nest; 

 nor do 1 believe that there were any others in the neighborhood. 



Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus). — On June 3rd, 1901, I was attract- 

 ed to the nest of a Warbling Vireo by the singing of its owner, which 

 was at that moment sitting on its eggs. I do not know of any 

 other bird which sings while incubating. 



Golden-winged Warbler (Helminthopila chrysoptera.) — Rhine- 

 beck, N. Y., is one of the places which is graced with the presence 

 of this beautiful little bird, which apparently is uncommon except in 

 certain restricted localities. Every year it comes to two small 

 wooded swamps on my place, during the first ten days in May, and 

 remains till about the middle of August. I have only succeeded 

 so far in finding one nest, which was on the ground and contained 

 two young warblers and a young Cowbird. They were all ready 

 to fiy, so I could not try to photograph their parents, which were 

 very shy, and would not lead me to the nest for a long time. The 

 nest was built of grape-vine bark, and dead oak leaves, and lined 

 with finer grass, all of a uniform dark brown. 



M. S. CROSBY. 



MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD INCREASING IN BOULDER, COLO. 



It may interest the readers of the Bulletin to learn that the 

 Mountain Bluebird (Sialia arctica) is increasing in numbers each 

 year in this locality. This spring they are so numeroi^s as to at- 

 tract the attention of many people who had apparently never no- 

 ticed them before, and during heavy snowstorms from March 12 to 

 March 23, they congregated in enormous flocks, dispersing as soon 

 as the snow began to melt away after each storm. I believe the 

 flocking was due partly to the fact that the storms drove many 

 birds from the foothills, partly to the fact that unusually deep snow 

 in the mountains prevented the birds from entering a? early as 

 usual, but chiefly to the fact that they were forced to favored lo- 

 calities for food during the storms. Certain large trees were filled 

 with the birds, which seemed to be busily feeding among the burst- 



