22 Hess, Breeding Birds of Central Illinois. [f.^^ 



8. Colinus virginianus. Bob-white. — Common resident. At times 

 abundant. Just now slowly recovering from the devastation of the winter 

 of 1902-1903. In the spring of 1903 whole coveys were found huddled 

 together when the snows melted. They had burrowed in the snow drifts 

 for shelter from the storms and were locked in their prison through a hard 

 freeze following a sleet. Bob-white comes to the maples of the village to 

 wliistle each spring and fall. Earhest nesting, 20 eggs, May 16, 1899; 

 latest, 16 eggs, July 18, 1909. 



9. Tympanuchus americanus. Prairie Chicken. — Common resident. 

 Gaining a new lease of life as a direct result of our splendid game law, 

 which has proliibited the killing of this grouse from 1902 to 1910. We 

 hear the rolling boom of this splendid bird in every direction during the 

 early spring months. February 11 is my earliest record of its notes while 

 February 20 is the average date for 11 years. 



Full sets number 12 to 17 eggs, and 13 eggs taken April 27, 1898, is my 

 earliest set. May 29, 1901, a set of 13 eggs was taken in a small clover 

 patch only 200 yards from our town park. This year I photographed a 

 set of 13 eggs "in situ" not a third of a mile from the business district, 

 and in June a Prairie Cliicken flew the full length of one of our main streets 

 only ten feet from the ground. 



10. Zenaidura macroura. Mourning Dove. — Abundant summer 

 resident, arriving March 4 to 15. Earliest nesting, 2 eggs, April 23, 1905; 

 latest, 2 eggs, July 15, 1900. Nests in orchards and hedgerows, on stumps 

 in timber, and often on the groimd along the banks of open ditches. 



11. Cathartes aura septentrionalis. Turkey Vulture. — Common 

 summer resident. Arrives from the south April 2 to 18. Have found it 

 nesting in logs, in hollow trees, twenty feet up in a dead stump, and six feet 

 below the surface of the ground in the hollow of rotten stump. Earliest 

 date for full set, two eggs, April 27, 1898, but a set of two eggs taken May 8, 

 1903, I consider nearest the real average date. Two eggs, taken June 25, 

 1905, is my latest date record. One female had to be lifted from her eggs. 



12. Accipiter cooperi. Cooper's Hawk. — Common summer resident. 

 Common in timber but also nests in the maple groves on the farms. Earli- 

 •est nesting, 4 eggs, April 21, 1903; latest, 4 eggs, June 1, 1900. Arrives 

 in spring April 5 to 14. Not a winter resident here. 



13. Buteo borealis. Red-tailed Hawk. — Common resident. En- 

 tirely replaces lineatus in this locality. Nests in timber and groves alike 

 and in isolated cottonwoods in fields. Earliest nesting, 2 eggs, March 21, 

 1900; latest, 2 eggs. May 12, 1908. Contrary to most published records, 

 our Buteos do not deposit a second set in the old nest but always construct 

 an entirely new nest. After losing the first set we may find the Red-tail 

 covering the second set in a new nest 19 days later. 



In my series of eight sets taken in seven years, one set is of three eggs 

 and seven sets of two. All are heavily marked. 



14. Buteo swainsoni. Swainson's Hawk. — Rare summer resident, 

 but seen each year Dr. Jessee collected a set from this hawk in Lynn Grove 



