164 



OKNIT1IOLOGI8T 



[Vol. 15-No. 11 



close to liiin ami lookino- at liim sideways. At 

 this lie muttered under his breath, and very 

 excitedly "A Wilson's Black-cap Warbler, by 

 jingo! note c//ez." I had not uttered any note I 

 am sure. Pietty soon my comrades came to 

 see what was the matter, at which he became 

 still more excited and called in a voice of 

 thunder, "O come here quick, here's about 

 fifty inillion Wilsons!" He then backed slowly 

 off, watchin.i" me intently, raised his gun, and 

 before I knew what was going to hap})en a 

 blinding flash sprang fortli, followed by a 

 sudden shooting pain through my whole body. 

 I lost my hold, all grew dark, anil I fell down, 

 down, down, landing witli a thump, and found 

 myself seated under an old pine tree busily 

 rubbing my eyes. 



The sun was Hitering thiough the leaves in 

 little golden threads, the dreary hum of in- 

 sects was heard, while tlie Chickadees still 

 exclainu'd, "this the way, way, way," and the 

 Nuthatches still blew their little tin horns. 



Sfciiud-f E. White. 



Nesting of the Summer Tanager at 

 Raleigh, N. C. 



The Summer Tanager {Piranya rithra) is by 

 no means uncommon at Raleigh during the 

 sumnuu' months, itdiabiting both mixed 

 woods and ]jines, Ix'ing pi'rliai)s more (-(immon 

 in the lattei'. 



About the middle of iMay the Tanager looks 

 out f(u- a nest site, usually selecting one of the 

 long lower limbs of an oak or pine, and on 

 this limb, toward the end away from the trunk, 

 the nest is placed. Sometimes, however, the 

 Tanager juefers to place her nest in the very toj) 

 of a small pine sapling instead of tt)wards the 

 end of a long limb. In both cases a compar- 

 atively ojieii ])la(i' in I hi' woods seems to be 

 l)referred to a more retired one, the nest being 

 often in a tree close to a road or over a footi)ath. 



The height of the nest varies from six 1o 

 thirty feet, usually about fifteen. 



The nest is composed of weed stems exter- 

 nally, and is lined with fine, yellow cured grass 

 stems; the lining forming a strong contrast in 

 color to the bulk of the nest. The nest is 

 rather fiat and shallow, but firm and compact, 

 and the form of the sitting biid shows 

 very prominently when on the nest. i'lie eggs 

 are tiiiee or four in tliis locality, the date for 

 fresh sets being Jinii' 1st and latei-. and, as is 



usually the case, wlien one nest is taken the 



bird builds a fresh nest and lays another set. 



C. S. Brunley. 

 Raleigh, N. C. 



New Ornithological Association. 



Tiie late meeting of the A. A. A. S. was the 

 occasion of the coming together of quite a 

 number of ornithologists, especially from the 

 middle and western states. This was in j^art 

 due to the efforts of Mr. A. W. Butler, of 

 Brookville, Ind., and Prof. B. W. Evermann of 

 Terre Haute, Intl., who had, by circular and 

 personal correspondence, reached nearly every 

 working oi-nithologist in the country. 



Early in the session a meeting was called for 

 the purpose of ccmsidering the advisability of 

 a formal association of those present, and 

 others who might desire to identify themselves 

 with the movement, for the purpose of more 

 efficiently extending this line of scientific 

 work. 



On motion of ^Ir. Butler, Prof. Evermann 

 was called to the chair. Mr. W. S. Blatchley 

 was elected secretary of the meeting, and af- 

 ter the statements of the object of the call, 

 and s()me informal sug'gesfcious by those jires- 

 ent, the chair appointed a committee com- 

 posed of Messrs. BuMer of Indiana, Widmann 

 of Missouri, and Jones of Iowa, to prepare 

 preliminary articles of association, and to pre- 

 sent them for consideration at a subsequent 

 meeting. 



According to previous arrangements, cer- 

 tain papers were then presented and read, 

 among which may be mentioned one by Mr. 

 Lind .lones of Iowa, upon the Meadow Lark 

 {Stiiniclht iii'rjna); one by Mr. Otto Widmann 

 of Old Orchard, ^lo., upon the Orchard Oriole 

 (/c/cr».s- sjiurlns); papers by Messrs. Butler and 

 Evermann on the Baltinutre Oriole {Irterus 

 Bdltiiiiovc). Prof. .1. B. Steere of Michigan 

 gave an extended account of the birds of the 

 Phili])pine Islands, based upon his own ob- 

 servations in the islands. A number of fine 

 specimens were exhibited in illustiation of 

 theories of coloration, distribution, etc. Mr. 

 Butler presented extensive notes ui)on the mi- 

 grations ami distribution of the Evening Gros- 

 l)eak. Prof. Osborn of Anu's, Iowa, spoke 

 upon the "Parasites of Biids." Fiom his tih- 

 servations he inferred that only a limited num- 

 ber of these actually fed ui)on the blood of the 

 host; most of them feeding upon feathej's, 

 hairs, etc. 



