CENSUS OF NESTING BIRDS 49 



nearly a half hour trying to get a satisfactory view of the shy 

 ventriloquist. He persisted in keeping hidden behind a leafy 

 screen and I could not tell by the sound whether he was near 

 or far, or to the right or to the left. 



Off to the south, along a rocky ledge where the woods 

 and prairie meet, a Blue-winged Warbler flushed up from my 

 very feet. It rested on a twig only a few yards away and dis- 

 played all of its beautiful colors and markings, even to the 

 black streak from bill to the eye. In spite of the fact that I 

 had almost stepped on it I had trouble in finding the nest, so 

 well was it hidden in a clump of blue-stem grass and ironweed. 

 The nest contained three newly hatched birds and two eggs 

 and was well constructed with an outer covering of dead leaves 

 and an inner lining of delicate grass rootlets and fiber. 



Mr. Harry Harris reported finding a nest and egg of the 

 Turkey Buzzard in this same region a few weeks earlier. The 

 rock crevices afford good nesting sites for this big bird, and 

 in all probability more than one nesting pair might have been 

 found. 



The best find for the section was made about a month 

 after the regular census-taking trip. On July 8th a pair of 

 Prothonotary Warblers were found in a fringe of wood along 

 the Blue River just north of the Rifle Range. The parent 

 warblers were feeding their fully fledged young that had left 

 the nest, but were still clamoring for help from the "home 

 folks." It was rare sport to watch them, for while they are 

 common enough as nesting birds in the woods along the Mis- 

 souri River, they are not at all common this far from the 



