THE OOLOGIST. 



an 



this happy gathering of songsters is 

 fostered and protected by their patron 

 where they can pillage the garden and 

 fruit trees without restraint, only re- 

 paying the owner by their agreeable 

 presence and delightful melodies. 



My home is in the city where one is 

 denied the presence of most of our birds. 

 Still, in spring and fall migrations, 

 many species flit through or over my 

 home yard. During a lai'ge share of 

 the time for the past twenty-live years 

 I have recorded the visitors to our 

 yard, and this list, started as the result 

 of a boyish whim, has grown to a' reli- 

 able record of no mean size. The num- 

 ber of species of birds identified in or 

 over our yard in size, five and a quarter 

 by twelve rods, is one hundi-ed and 

 thirty-four,* while (19) species have 

 been found nesting at various times. 

 In one tree, alone, a burr oak, Quercus 

 macrocarpa, in this yard of (63) square 

 rods, I have recorded sixty-four species 

 of birds fduring the last quarter of a 

 century, in which time the -village of 

 Kalmazoo, Mich., has grown to a city 

 of 20,000 inhabitants. 



Three hundred feet from a common 

 center gives a circumference of over 

 (108) rods' equal to more than eight 

 times the area of the space where my 

 notes were taken. When we consider 

 that- these notes are mainly from obser- 

 vations in the village or city, the good 

 results of continued observation are 

 apparent. Mokris Gibbs. 



Albinos of the Grasshopper Sparrow- 



On the 30th of May, 1893, while en- 

 gaged in making a collection of eggs 

 for the cabinet of Central University, a 

 bright boy who was assisting me 

 brought me a nest which he had scoop- 

 ed with his hands from a depression in 



* The names of these birds are given in full 

 v&Foraet and Sti^eam, N. Y., date August 11, 

 1892, in article entitled, "Bird Life in a City 

 Yard." 



t The list of these (64) species is given in 

 Science, N. Y. City, October 27, '93, in an article 

 '•The Visitors to One Oak Tree." 



the ground in an open meadoAv where 

 it was partially concealed by an over- 

 hanging tuft of grass. In materials and 

 structure it was precisely like the nests 

 ordinarily built by the Song Spai'row 

 in similar depressions in the ground. 

 The eggs, which were five in number, 

 were of about the usual size and shape 

 of those of the Song Sparrow, but were 

 spotlessly and immac late white. 

 Knowing the propensity of the Song 

 Sparrow to vary the coloring and mark- 

 ings of its eggs, I immediately con- 

 cluded that the nest must be of thi? 

 species, but the boy earnestly protested 

 that he knew a Song Sparrow when he 

 saw it, and this was not one but a some- . 

 what smaller bird with yellow upon its 

 breast and wings. As he had found the 

 bird on the nest, was a close observer, 

 and had every opportunity to make ac- 

 curate observation, this of course set- 

 tled the matter as far as the claims of 

 the Song Sparrow went. We went as 

 soon as practicable to the spot where 

 the nest was found, but the bird was 

 gone and the most patient and diligeut 

 search failed to find her again, and my 

 note book received the very unsatisfac- 

 tory entry: "Set of five, about .75x.65, 

 pure white, somewhat incubated; nest 

 on the ground, in open meadow, like 

 Song Sparrow; species unknown." 



On the 15th of June, 1894, while on a 

 similar expedition my son startled a 

 bird from her nest in a similar depres- 

 sion in the ground. Catching a glimpse 

 of the white eggs and the yellow wings,, 

 and not being able to identify the bird, 

 he shot her and brought her home with 

 the nest and five pure white eggs. Up- 

 on examintion the bird proved to be 

 unquestionably the Grasshopper Spar- 

 row or Yellow-winged Sparrow, (Ani- 

 moclramus savannarum passerinus), and 

 as the nest and set of eggs, taken last 

 year, are the exact counterpart in all 

 respects of this last set which has been 

 fully identified, there remains no doubt 

 that both are of the same species (A. O. 

 U. 547). 



After consulting all the authorities at 

 my command I find no recorded in- 

 stance of sets of eggs of this bird that 

 are spotlessly white. If any reader of 

 the Oologist has had an experience 

 similar to mine I should be glad to hear 

 from them. T. D. Witherspoon, 



Richmond, Ky. 



