1084 REPORT or STATE GEOLOGIST. 



State, perhaps, including the Kankakee Valley, they are rare. Beyond 

 that stream they are rare. 



I have one record from Lake County, May 24, 1879 (Coale). I 

 also have a record of it from the Kankakee, near Kouts, June 27, 

 1895 (J. G. Parker, Jr.). They are common in the Wabash Valley, 

 north to Parke and Montgomery counties, where I found them build- 

 ing at Shades of Death and Pine Hills, May 19 and 20, 1887; and 

 Lafayette (Test). In Dekalb county it is tolerably common (Mrs. 

 Hine), and at Petersburg, Mich., it is common (Trombley). It breeds 

 in suitable localities wherever it is found. They are sometimes paired 

 when they arrive, and, while I have never taken the nest, I have found, 

 in specimens, eggs ready to be laid, April 21 (1882), and May 7 (1881). 

 Messrs. L. A. and C. D. Test report a nest, with three eggs, taken at 

 Lafayette, May 25, 1893. Mr. Jesse Earlle took a nest containing two 

 well incubated eggs at Greencastle, May 7, 1894, and the spring of 

 1878 Mr. William Brewster found them very common in Knox County, 

 and found three nests, one May 6, containing six eggs; another May 8, 

 containing four fresh eggs; a third, May 12, containing five young 

 birds nearly able to fly. 



In July, when the dry summer weather begins, they leave the 

 smaller streams, which are drying up, and seek other localities that are 

 watered. As stream after stream and pond after pond becomes dry, 

 the small number of these birds remaining find food about the stronger 

 streams and ponds fed by springs that have resisted the drouth. By 

 late August or early September most of them have left. I found the 

 latest straggler at Brookville, September 21, 1885, and Mr. E. J. 

 Chansler noted one at Bicknell, Ind., September 24, 1894. They un- 

 doubtedly remain much later than that about the sloughs and ponds 

 of the lower Wabash region. 



160. GENUS GEOTHLYPIS CABANIS. 



a 1 . Wing much longer than tail ; first quill nearly or quite the longest. 



Subgenus OPORORNIS Baird. 



ft 1 . Head with black ; under parts yellow. G. formosa (Wils.) 284 



b 2 . Head without black; crown and throat ashy. G. agilis (Wils.). 285 



a 2 . Wing not longer than tail ; first quill shorter than fourth. 



Subgenus GEOTHLYPIS. 

 c 1 . Male, forehead and sides of face black; female with head plain. 



d 1 . Ashy border behind the black on head; belly and sides buffy whitish. 



G. trichas (Linn.). 287 

 d 2 . White or grayish border behind the black on head ; belly yellow. 



G. triclias occidentalis Brewst. 288 



c 2 . Head and throat ashy, darker on breast which in male is sometimes quite 

 blackish. G. Philadelphia (Wils.). 286 



