THE OOLOGIST. 



151 



have no doubt but that many, many 

 very interesting things have been 

 learned, and vakiable observations 

 taken tliis season, and it would be a 

 pleasure to publish them if forwarded 

 to us. 



NOTES FROM WEST CHESTER, PA. 



Notwithstanding the continued abun- 

 dance of the English Sparrow here, it 

 is interesting to note that our native 

 birds are holding their own, and in a 

 few cases are on the increase. 



We have eight or ten fine colonies 

 of Martins that are welcomed each 

 spring, their landlords generally hav- 

 ing their quarters cleaned out of Spar- 

 row nests, and giving them an equal 

 change with the sparrows. Often 

 they settle down to housekeeping 

 side by side in apparent harmony, 

 though at first they have some hard 

 fought battles in which the Martins 

 generally come off victorious. 



Quite a number of Carolina Wrens 

 remain with us during the winter and 

 occasionally a pair of Tufted Tits. The 

 Wrens are particularly welcome as 

 they sing almost constantly during 

 the late winter and early spring. 



Cardinals are more numerous in the 

 surrounding country than they were 

 twenty years ago. 



Red-eyed, Warbling and Yellow- 

 throated Vireos and Baltimore Orioles 

 are regular breeders in the Public 

 Park of our town. 



This season a pair of Blue Jays also 

 nested in the Park and raised a brood 

 of young. 



The Wood Thrush has become a reg- 

 ular summer resident in town within 

 the last few years, and probably a 

 dozen pairs of them nest each year 

 scattered through different sections, 

 frequently nesting in the most public 

 places. One nest I knew of over-hung 

 one of the most traveled streets and 

 another was so close to the house that 



you could reach it from the porch roof. 

 The Wood Thrush seems to leave all 

 its wildness in the country and be- 

 comes our tamest bird — too tame in 

 fact to avoid its only enemy here — 

 the house cat. 



The Robin is our most abundant 

 bird, hundreds of pairs of them nest- 

 ing in almost any conceivable place 

 about town, and with the early dawn 

 they raise such a racket that they 

 drown the songs of all the other birds 

 until they become almost a nuisance. 



In the Raptores, our town is well 

 represented by numerous pairs of 

 Screech Owls scattered through every 

 section, where old trees afford a con- 

 venient home, and I have a very 

 strong suspicion that a large part of 

 their food coziies from the hordes of 

 sparrows that infest the ivy covered 

 walls and the favorite rendezvous of 

 these little pests. 



A pair of these owls annually bring 

 out a brood of young in the Park, 

 nesting in hollow limbs or in the boxes 

 put up for gray squirrels. 



THOMAS H. JACKSON, 

 West Chester, Pa. 



THE REDSTART. 



I must say I think THE OOLOGIST 

 has improved. I looked in an Ameri- 

 can Redstart's nest this Spring and 

 saw five nice fresh eggs; the first set 

 I ever saw and have been wandering 

 the field for twenty years. 



A. E. KIBBE, 

 Mayville, N. Y. 



We get many communications be- 

 tinning as the above does. The Red- 

 start is one of the commonest, if not 

 the commonest of all the breeding 

 warblers in the vicinity of Lacon. In 

 the season, it Is no uncommon thing 

 for a person to see from ten to two 

 dozen nests in the course of one day 

 in the woods. — Ed. 



