152 



THE OOLOQIST. 



The Cuban Meadowlark. 



I enclose a photo of a nest of a Cuban 

 Meadow Lark. This photo was taken 

 by me in the "Mayari" Pine woods on 

 May 23, 1909. These pine woods are 

 some eighteen hundred feet above sea 

 level. They grow (the pines) on an 

 extensive mining property (Iron ore) 

 belonging to the Spanish American 

 Iron Company of New York. The 

 earth is naturally very red and near- 

 ly all the birds that live largely on 

 the ground, are stained red or rusty, 

 making them appear much darker 

 than they are in other localities. 

 CHARLES T. RAMSDEN, 



Guantanamo, Cuba. 

 The photo sent is not clear enough 

 from which to make a good half tone, 

 which we would very gladly do for 

 the benefit of our readers. In gener- 

 al appearance it is a typical nest of 

 the Meadow Lark, but unusual of 

 course as to location, as is shown by 

 the above note. 



Occurrence of Lincoln's Sparrow. 



The morning of May 14th was rainy, 

 but birds were singing everywhere, so 

 I took a short tramp and luckily took 

 my gun along. 



At a place along the river where 

 thorn trees, alders and small brush 

 was plentiful, I noticed among others, 

 a bird that I at first took to be a 

 song sparrow. It flew from some 

 brush to a little tree and a second 

 glance showed it to be rather small 

 for a Song Sparrow. Looking closely 

 I noticed markings on the breast but 

 failed to see the usual dark blotch of 

 the Song Sparrow's breast. The bird 

 was shy and kept close to the trunk. 

 I could not get an unobstructed view, 

 but soon became convinced that it was 

 not a Song Sparrow. 



A shot secured the specimen, which 

 proved to be a male Lincoln's Spar- 

 row, the first I have any record of 

 here. 



R. B. SIMPSON, 



Warren, Pa. 



Notes on the Least Tern. 



I paid a visit July 24th to the col- 

 ony of Least Terns nesting on the 

 beach between Newport and Hunting- 

 ton beaches. Orange County, Cal. 

 The place is an ideal one for these 

 birds; there being a long strip of 



sandy beach broken up by sand dunes, 

 with the Pacific on one side and a salt 

 marsh on the other. 



The colony has increased material- 

 ly since last May, there now being 

 about six hundred pairs of birds in- 

 habiting the above mentioned district. 

 About one hundred and fifty nests 

 were examined, most of them contain- 

 ing young of all sizes, or else pipped 

 eggs. The nest is simply a depression 

 in the sand, usually at the foot of a 

 sand dune, lined with bits of broken 

 shell, and nearly always near a bit of 

 drift-wood or a stone. High tides had 

 washed out many nests and many of 

 the eggs were observed along the high- 

 water mark. The young crawl about 

 on the beach as soon as they are dry, 

 and how the parent birds find and 

 identify them I do not know. I saw 

 one bird hovering four young of dif- 

 ferent sizes and a young bird trying 

 to crawl under a Tern sitting on eggs, 

 so I suppose that the old birds feed 

 any fledgling indiscriminately. 



D. I. SHEPARDSON, 

 Los Angeles, Calif. 



This note is interesting to us from 

 the fact that we have a very inter- 

 esting series of eggs of Least Tern, 

 taken in this colony, which came to 

 us with the collection of W. Lee ham- 

 bers of Santa Monica, California; and 

 also for the reason that when in ali- 

 fornia in May, 1907, we made two 

 visits to this colony of birds, one in 

 the middle of May and one the last 

 day of May, only to find each time 

 that the birds had not commenced 

 nesting, though they were there in 

 large numbers. — Ed. 



Bully for the Starling! 



In the OOLOGIST for August, 1907, 

 I spoke quite strongly in favor of the 

 English starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 

 and I wish to add a few notes taken 

 since that date. 



As I previously stated, the Starlings 

 are most certainly diminishing the 

 sparrow population in this locality. 

 The chart shown herewith is an ac- 

 curate record of the number of song 

 bird nests and the number of spar- 

 row nests which have been built on 

 the grounds surrounding my home 

 since the arrival of the Starling, and 

 it may be plainly seen that the sang 

 birds are greatly on the increase. 



