72 



THE OOLOGIST. 



In case of • the nests of the Chat as of 

 other birds that are imposed upon by 

 the Covvbirds, an egg or two of the 

 builder of the nest will almost invaria- 

 bly be found on the ground under the 

 nest, after the Cowbird has done her 

 work . 



These eggs are generally beak-chipped 

 and there seems little doubt that the 

 Cowbird not only usurps the nest, but 

 sucks the eggs of the' birds whom she 

 chooses as the foster-parents of her . 

 young. Though cleverly hidden, the 

 Chat's nest is not hard to find — after 

 you have found one: 



Go into a thicket, — listen; if you hear 

 a Chat who seems drunk, and who also 

 becomes crazy as you approach his fav- 

 orite copse, mark the spot, search well 

 the nest is before you. 



Now for the Swallow portion of our 

 "pie": Dui'ing my trip to Kansas,' last 

 June, as my host, the genial ranchman 

 and I were galloping across prairie and 

 over hill, en route for the haunts of the 

 Missi.-sippi Kite, I noticed that troops 

 of Cliff Swallows attended us every- 

 where, which I Avondered at, not having 

 noticed any nest upon the barns in the 

 litte town which -we had left far behind 

 us; and knowing that in all that wild, 

 broken region of the gypsum hills, there 

 were no barns, worthy the dignity of 

 the name. 



But, the canons reached, there came 

 a solution. My broncho had just land- 

 ed me across a creek, with a few vigor- 

 ous buckings of remonstrance, Avhen I 

 chanced to turn and fasten my eyes up- 

 on a high bank some eighty or one hun- 

 dred feet in altitude, its sui'face com- 

 posed of the prevalent brick clay cf the 

 Medicine River region, interspersed 

 With thin strata of crystalline gypsum. 

 Just a clay bank, but what Ayas the 

 matter with it? Warty, honey- comby 

 in patches! ah, there breed the Cliff 

 Swallows! 



One little cluster of two hundred nests 

 or so near the upper left-hand corner of 



the cliff; another,, half way down; a lar-» 

 ger square one, near the right, and a, 

 little lower; a little cluster very near 

 the surface line one-third of the way up. 

 to the left; and a large colony to the 

 right of the center of the cliff aud reach-, 

 ing to within six or eight feet of the 

 pile of crumbled clay which might he 

 called the bottom of the cliff. 



Jack-knife in hand, I climbed, hy 

 uiches cut over the gypsum strata until, 

 I could barely reach the lower nests. 

 How I ever secured my four handsome- 

 sets of eggs will never be told — nor can 

 be. Most of the nests were gourd-shap- 

 ed, those that were not being such in, 

 the main, as tilled up the interstices. 

 All nests Avere of the red clay, and were 

 sparsely lined with grass. Occasional- 

 ly a straw was worked into the masonry- 

 and many nests Avere fastened to the 

 under side of plates of gypsum from 

 Avhich the clay had dissolved. "How 

 many nests?" I counted seventy-five in 

 one corn v of the larger colony. As, 

 nearly as I could calculate, there were 

 between vwo thousand and three thous- 

 and nests, in all. 



All these nests had been built within 

 two weeks, a heavy rain just preceedlug 

 that time having cleared the cliff. A 

 typical nest, with its gypsum roof and 

 a straw or two inAyrought now lies on 

 my mantel. I carried it, cotton swathed 

 in my tin collecting box, on my bron- 

 cho's back, seven miles at a keen gallop 

 through driving rain, my beast once 

 bucking forty rods at a stretch, as my 

 slicker napped her flanks. I Avas drench- 

 ed; but the nefet was safe Is it not a. 

 treasure among treasures? 



P. B. Pea body. 



A Hartford, Conn., Collector aste> 

 "Why can't H. H. D., of Phoenix, Ariz, 

 take a step ladder with him in a wag- 

 on?" in reply to the "Wanted Advice" 

 article in January Oologist. 



