THE OOLOGIST. 



307 



several flocks of Piue Siskins. — from 

 100 to 200 birds in a flock— in Houlton 

 village. They were nearly as tame as 

 English Sparrows. 



The Scarlet Tanager is evidently on 

 the increase in the northern tier of the 

 New England states. I saw one this 

 month (July) as far north as Oakfield. 

 In the same town Rose- breasted Gros- 

 beaks are common We found one of 

 the latter perched on a picture in the 

 dining room of the hotel. The bird 

 was caught in the barn about six weeks 

 before. It never manifested any dis- 

 position to leave the house, although 

 the windows and doors were often 

 open. It sang brilliantly until it began 

 to moult. Ten years ago the Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak was rare iu Maine; 

 but it has been steadily increasing, un- 

 til now it is to be found breeding iu 

 nearly every section. Many of us hope 

 that the Scarlet Tanager will continue 

 to increase until it is as common as the 

 Grosbeak. 



A. B. C, 

 Old Orchard, Me. 



ed iu this pair of birds that I allowed 

 them to hatch their eggs and rear their 

 youug undisturbed. 



M. D. COOPEB, 

 Antrim, N. H. 



Oven Birds Nest Building. 



One morning while out egging I had 

 the pleaser of watching a pair of Oven 

 Birds building their nest, and the sys- 

 tem and order of their united labor 

 was very interesting. 



The female kept inside, arrang- 

 ing the material and shaping the nest 

 to fit her own body, while the male 

 industriously worked on th i outside 

 bringing and placing the material, and 

 by their united systematic labor the 

 oven shaped nest progressed with sur- 

 prising rapidity. One rootlet which 

 Mr. O. B. was pulling vigorously upon 

 snapped suddenly giving him a double 

 somersault backwards before he could 

 regain his equilibrium; but the plucky 

 little fellow hung on to his root. The 

 next day I found the nest complete and 

 one fresh egg. I was so much interest- 



The Bob-white. 



This beautiful game bird is very abun- 

 dant in this locality, and is increasing 

 in numbers every year. They mate in 

 April, and in the eariy morning and in 

 fact, all through the day, you can hear 

 the love call of the male. They nest all 

 through the summer months, but I do 

 not think they raise but one brood. 

 They lay from 12 to 24 eggs. I found 

 four nests last season. One contained 

 24 eggs, one 18, one 15 and the other 12. 

 The ones that contained 24, 18 and 12 

 were perfectly fyesh, but the one that 

 contained 15 was slightly incubated. 

 The nests are extremely hard to find, 

 and can only be found by mere chance 

 or by flushing the old bird. 



H. L. Heaton, 

 Oberlin, Kan. 



The Whip-poor-will in Stark County, Illinois. 



I have often seen and heard the Whip- 

 poor-will in this locality but until last 

 year have been unable to secure any 

 eggs. On June 9, 1892 two friend se- 

 cured a nice set of two eggs of which I 

 secured one, and also a description of 

 the nest and bird. On the 18th of June 

 I found a set of 2 eggs, probably laid by 

 the same bird as the set on the 9th, the 

 eggs were placed on the ground in a 

 small brush heap, there being no nest 

 except a slight hollow filled with leaves. 

 The female was on the nest and did not 

 fly until I was within a few feet of her. 

 Is this not rather far north for the 

 Whip-poor-will? 



Bayard C. Rhodes. 



