THE OOLOGIST 



91 



study their habits and see their se- 

 crets and invade their realm will see 

 to it that at least next June, we will 

 have a Warbler number that will sur- 

 pass anything ever issued on the sub- 

 ject. R. M. Barnes. 



Western Meadowlark. 

 A friend of mine while out hunting 

 on the 15th of December, 1914, flush- 

 ed a female 501-B (Meadowlark) from 

 under his feet. On looking around a 

 bit he discovered a finely built nest 

 well concealed, containing three eggs. 

 He told me about it on the 17th and we 

 journeyed out there — National City — 

 about a mile from home. When we ar- 

 rived at the place there were still 

 three fresh eggs instead of five and no 

 bird. The eggs were all wet, the nest 

 just drenched, owing to heavy rains; 

 the bird had left the nest. Now I call 

 that an early record. My precious rec- 

 ords show F'ebruary 10th the earliest 

 and I think everything will nest early 

 in 1915. 



E. E. Sechrist. 



Early Nesting of the Ruffed Grouse. 



At Haskell, N. J., on April 26th, 

 while making a trip over the hills and 

 observing the migrational aspect of 

 this section, I came upon a female 

 Ruffed Grouse sitting on a nest in 

 which two eggs had been lain. The 

 bird hastily took to flight as I neared 

 the site of the nest. 



The nest was placed directly on the 

 ground among the dried leaves at the 

 foot of a laurel bush and would have 

 escaped attention except for the fact 

 that I almost stepped upon its owner 

 before she took to the wing. This is 

 the earliest nest of this species that I 

 have ever found, the next earliest hav- 

 ing been located about a mile to the 

 east of this spot on May 17th, 1908. 



This bird usually nests in this sec- 

 tion from May 20th to June 5th and 



it is only on rare occasions that they 

 have been located prior to May 26th, 

 the average date of about seventy 

 nests that I have examined. In all 

 probability this early nesting is due to 

 the prevailing congenial weather since 

 April 10th. 



On the 11th numerous adult birds 

 were flushed about here and again on 

 the 18th and the 25th about fifty were 

 observed on each day of the sexes. 

 Louis S. Kohler. 



Spring Observations. 



It is generally thought that the 

 robin is the last bird to leave us and 

 the first one to come, omitting, of 

 course, sparrows and snowbirds, or 

 the real winter birds. My observa- 

 tions this spring, however, seem to up- 

 set this theory, for by far the earliest 

 and the most numerous bird was the 

 blue bird. It came at least a week 

 before the robin. 



With the coming of spring a large 

 field of study and observation presents 

 itself, especially in the case of the 

 game birds of the nature of ducks, 

 geese, and the like. Upon quietly 

 creeping up to a flock of mallards, it 

 at once became evident that some sort 

 of a battle was going on, for a flock 

 of crows had also arrived and were 

 now fighting the ducks for the posses- 

 sion of a short strip of sand adjoin- 

 ing the river. The crows would stay 

 in the tops of high trees and now and 

 then one of them would dive head-first 

 at the ducks which were on the sand 

 or in the water at the river's edge. I 

 also observed that this was not a coin- 

 cidence for whenever a bunch of crows 

 were seen above a pond or any body 

 of water, the ducks were usually found 

 to be there. 



Fred L. Fitzpatrick. 



Bethany, Neb., Apr. 3, 1915. 



