BIEDS OF KANSAS 63 



tion that they were the first I had ever met with in the 

 State, and the strong desire to have them in my collection. 

 The nest was made of and fastened to the limb with 

 silk-like threads and bits of cotton from plants, fastened 

 together by saliva, and partly covered or dotted over with 

 lichen, and lined with small stems of weeds and grass. 

 The beautiful nest was in plain sight, there being nothing 

 near to hide it from view. It contained three eggs and 

 also one of the Cowbird (Molothus aier). One of the 

 eggs was broken by the bird in her struggle to escape from 

 the collector's grasp while in the nest. The color of the 

 eggs was pure white, with a few scattering small spots of 

 reddish brown toward the larger end. They each measure 

 .79x.58. Four taken from another nest (a full set) 

 measure: .V8x.57, .80x.58, .79x.58, .78x.57. 



I have since noticed these birds in the woodlands on 

 several occasions, and on the 18th of May, 1883, while 

 strolling along the south bank of the Kansas Kiver, near 

 Topeka, in the timber skirting the stream, I had the pleas- 

 ure to find a pair of them building a nest in a honey locust, 

 about sixteen feet from the ground, and eight feet from 

 the body of the tree. The nest was fastened to the forks of 

 a small horizontal branch. The frame of the nest ap- 

 peared to be completed. The birds were busy at work, 

 the female lining the nest with small, hair-like stems, the 

 male covering the outside with soft, lint-like fibrous 'strip- 

 pings from plants (these closely resembling the limb and 

 its surroundings), and dotting it over with lichen. Happy 

 in the thought that he was not only beautifying the home 

 of his lady bird, but protecting her from view by his 

 artistic skill (notwithstanding the fact that she had se- 



