THE OREGON xXATURALIST. 



bird is ungainly and awkward, with long neck 

 and legs and short tail. It has a long, stout, 

 pointed bill, ye'low below, with brown ridge. 

 They utter a gutteral "squiwk", besides their 

 peculiar post-driving note. In color they are a 

 rusty brown, blotched with black and white, 

 with a black patch on each side of the neck 

 and the top of the head is brown. The birds 

 are rather more than two feet in length, with 

 expanse of wings over three feet. Oftentimes 

 when alighting they have a peculiar trait of re- 

 maining rigid some time, with neck stretched 

 out and bill pointing upward. On one occasion 

 I found a nest of eggs only a few feet from a 

 nest from which I had taken eggs about two 

 weeks before. 



THE NASHVILLE WARBLER. 

 This is a very shy, retiring, plainly dressed 

 bird, but, like some of the small birds, has a 

 very long scientific name. Helminthophilia'\% 

 taken from the Greek Helinintlios, meaning "a 

 bug", and phileo, meaning "I love". This is 

 more a])propriate, I think, than the sjjecific 

 name ruficapilla, derived from two Latin 

 words one of which means "rufous" and the 

 other "a hair". This bird is yellowish olive- 

 green above, with ashy neck anil head; the 

 male having a chestnut crown. The under 

 parts are clear yellow, this being a distinguishing 

 feature of the sj^ecies, as they are the most 

 yellow below of any of the warbleis. The 

 wings and the'tail are more of a rusty brown, 

 than the back, a faint white ring around the 

 eye. They are birds of rather retiring habits, 

 and ground builders, the single nest that I found 

 in Massachusetts being in an old Pine field 

 growing up to White Pine and Birch, The 

 nest was by the side of a tuft of grass, parti illy 

 sunk in the ground, and pretty well concealed. 

 It was well made, of grass and rootlets, lined 

 with finer material. It contained four eggs, of 

 a light, grayish, slate color, quite thickly spot- 

 ted with brown about the large end, forming 

 something of a wreath. Not knowing the 

 bird at the time. I went back a day or two 

 later with my gun and secured one of the old 

 birds for identification. 



CONTRIVANCES FOR THE 

 DISPERSAL OF SEEDS 



As Darwin and many subsequent ob- 

 servers have shown, there are manifold 

 contrivances for the dispersal of the seeds 

 of plants. Familiar examples of such 

 contrivances may be seen in the hooks 

 and viscid hairs of the involucre and seed 

 pods of various plants (Desmodium, Madia, 

 etc.) which thereby are attached to the hair 

 of animals; or in the down or pappus of the 

 dandelion or epilobium and the wings of 

 the seed vessels of the elm and maple 

 which materially increase the surface of 

 the fruit without to an appreciable extent 

 tJie volume thai enabling them to be 

 wafted by the wind. Many seeds however 

 are small and round, and although it has 

 leen shown that these too may be carried 

 over great distances by the wind and in 

 other ways which 1 shall point out later, 

 these probably depend upon some means 

 such as the sudden dehiscence of the seed 

 poJ. It is in this way that the seeds of 

 that beautiful plant Impatiens or jewel 

 weed are scattered and also those of its 

 congener, the commonly cultivated 

 lady's slipper. 



Seeds however, whatever their color or 

 shape, may be carried in other ways than 

 that for which some character has adapted 

 them. Thus many seeds are eaten and 

 subsequently voided. An examination of 

 the tops of stumps in a Western Oregon 

 clearing during the fall will result in the 

 discovery of seeds of the flowering dog- 

 wood (Cornus Nuttallii) divested of their 

 covering of red pulp, lying white and 

 bleaching in the sun. They are often 

 associated with the excrement of birds and 

 the writer has repeatedly observed that the 

 blue jays and other birds feed on these 

 seeds. Now the seeds thus found on 

 stumps are merely those which happened 

 to be voided in those positions. Many 

 others doubtless find their way from the 



