212 Contributions from the Charleston Museum. 



Kollock of Cheraw. I herewith transcribe the account that Mr. 

 Loomis published in the Auk.^ 



In a letter received sometime since from Dr. C. Kollock, mention was made 

 of the former Vireeding of the Least Bush-tit in the vicinity of Cheraw, South 

 Carolina. Subsequently I wrote to him asking for further particulars concern- 

 ing this interesting occurrence. His reply is as follows: — "As to the Chestnut- 

 crowned Titmouse — Parus minimus of Townsend and Audubon — I never wrote 

 anything on the subject except a short letter to the Rev. Dr. M . A. Curtis, who was 

 then pastor of the Episcopal Church at Society Hill, about fifteen miles below 

 Cheraw. When I first wrote him that I had found specimens of the Chestnut- 

 crowned Titmouse near Cheraw, he wrote me promptly, saying that I must be 

 mistaken, as that bird was never seen east of the Rocky Mountains. I had cap- 

 tured both the male and female, and the nest with six eggs in it. A few days 

 later Dr. Curtis came to Cheraw, and when he saw the birds, nest, and eggs, he 

 gave it up and said, 'You have discovered the first Chestnut-crowned Titmouse 

 ever seen this side of the Rocky Mountains. ' I saw perhaps six or eight others 

 in the same locality. I have never seen any since that date, [the spring of] 1857, 

 so it must have been an accident their appearing in this latitude. ' ' 



This account adds still another instance of that peculiar easterly migration of 

 "western" species toward the South Atlantic seaboard, which has so recently 

 been revealed in the records of LeConte's Bunting, Painted Longspur, Nelson's 

 Sharp-tailed Finch, and Yellow-headed Blackbird. It is to be hoped that the 

 constantly increasing band of ornithological workers, scattered over the State, 

 will be able to throw the clearer light of later experience on this and other legacies 

 of the Bachmanian epoch of South Carolinian ornithology. 



P. S. — Since writingthe foregoing I have received a more detailed account from 

 Dr. Kollock respecting the occurrence noted above, from which I add the 

 following: 



"The nest was suspended from low bushes, from three and a half to five 

 feet from the ground; was in the shape of a long purse, from four to six inches in 

 length, with a round hole at the top. The lower part or bottom of the nest was 

 wider than the upper part. The nest was made principally of moss, lint, and 

 down, and lined with feathers. There were several eggs — I do not now remember 

 how many — four or five, I think, and were pure white. The nest was in a low 

 place, not exactly a swamp or marsh, l)ut a low bottom, grown up thickly with 

 bushes of sweet-gum, hackberry, a bush known here as the sipice tree. It was 

 most beautifully and securely attached to the twigs. 



"In 1857, Dr. Curtis was in the zenith of his reputation as a botanist and or- 

 nithologist. He died soon after the war. This is all I have to say on the sub- 

 ject of the Parus minimus being found in South Carolina. I had the male and 

 female and a nest of eggs, all of which was burned in my office by Sherman's 

 army in 1865. The birds and nest I procured in the very early part of May or 

 latter part of April I was not mistaken in my identification. I saw the birds 

 before they were captured, knew they were rare in this region, having given some 

 attention to the ornithology of this State. Having procured the specimens, I 

 referred the matter to Dr. Curtis, who, when he saw them, admitted at once they 

 were the Parus minimus, and said, 'You are the first to find this bird east of the 

 Rocky Mountains.' Dr. Curtis doubted my correctness of identification till 

 he saw the specimens." 



I have quoted Mr. Loomis' article in full, as the capture of 

 the birds, nest, and eggs by Dr. Kollock, seems to have been dis- 

 credited by ornithologists generally, no mention being made in 

 the American Ornithologists' Union Check-List for 1895 or in 

 the citations of this species in Birds of North and Middle Amer- 



«III, 1886, 137-138. 



