240 



THE OOLOGIST. 



are regaled with the sweetest, tenderest 

 music. This is so low, that to apprec- 

 iate its effect, the listener must be but 

 a short distant from the tree in which 

 our modest vocalist is busily engaged. 

 He like many of his kin dislike notor- 

 iety. He does not seek the bare 

 branches of some tall tree, and thrill 

 the air of the surrounding wood with 

 ear-splitting utterances, but as he pours 

 forth his subdued song while hid away 

 in the leafy shelter of some gnarled oak 

 the severest critic could scarcely fail to 

 assign him a high place among the 

 feathered choir. 



The selection of a home-spot soon 

 claims their attention. In the river 

 bottom, the sweet gum seems to be the 

 kind of tree nearly always chosen, while 

 here on the mountains they usually 

 build in the white oaks. They prefer 

 trees whose branches are rough and 

 lichen clad, although I have known of 

 one nest being taken from the top of a 

 small piue sapling about twelve feet 

 high. The height at which these nests 

 are placed varies with the locality. In 

 some places they are seldom found 

 above ten feet, but in the majority of 

 cases, this limit is exceeded and the 

 height of 50 and even 60 feet are reach- 

 ed. There is little variation in the form 

 noticeable, their shape being generally 

 that of a truncated cone. The position 

 too is quite uniform. Most of them are 

 placed on strong branches, both up- 

 right and horizontal, to which they are 

 ingeniously woven. They are so 

 securely fastened that to dislodge one 

 is a matter of no small difficulty. By a 

 wise provision of instinct their contents 

 are insured against accident. Not so 

 much by the depth of the cavity, as by 

 the purse like contraction of the rim. 

 Few structures of bird architecture are 

 are more beautiful than the home of 

 this little Gnatcatcher. Its walls are of 

 felt, closely and compactly woven of 

 the slender stems of grasses, thistle- 

 down, spider webs and fine vegetable 



fibers. With a love for the beautiful, 

 our little architect must go further andj 

 invest the exterior in a coat of bluish 

 gray lichens which serves the two-fold 

 purpose of ornamentation and protec- 

 tion both from the weather and dis-. 

 covery. The nest looks so much like a 

 natural excresence that only the ex- 

 perienced eye can detect the difference. 

 The nest seems rather bulky compared 

 with the tiny builders, who measure 

 but four and three-tenths inches in. 

 length. 



Having completed their home, from 

 four to six eggs are deposited in as. 

 many days. Incubation begins at once ; 

 and lasts fourteen days. This is as, 

 much the work of one sex as the other. 

 But a single brood is raised each year. 

 The eggs are oval in form and slightiy 

 pointed. In ground color they are- 

 white, spotted and blotched with red- 

 dish brown, slate and lilac. Cabinet 

 specimens some times show a faint 

 bluish or greenish white tint. The 

 average dimensions are .59 by .48 inches K 

 My husband found a nest in a sweet 

 gum, which was not quite completed v 

 He watched them for some time, as they 

 worked away at their little home. He- 

 went back in two weeks to get it, but 

 found it gone. The question now 

 arises — did they remove it to safer quaiv 

 ters? for not a vestige of it was left. 

 If it had been destroyed by other birds, 

 some of the libers with which it was, 

 securely fastened to the limb would? 

 surely have been left, but not even a 

 spiders web remained. 



Mrs. Lillie Pleas, 



Clinton, Ark., 



Shall we Organize ! 



This is the one great problem which- 

 agitates the mind of the student of sci- 

 ence to-day. 



We all feel that organization is neces- 

 sary, and, once it is accomplished the : 

 difficulties of scientific research wil\ 



