THE OOLOGIST. 



161 



"White-throated Sparrow. Thinking it 

 very late for the Sparrows to be here, 

 I determined to secure one, and on 

 shooting the singer in the act of singing 

 I was rewai'ded with a more beautiful 

 bird. 



The Purple Finches have left their 

 dogwood and blackgum berries, to re- 

 turn this fall; taking with them the 

 Robins and Snowbirds and are replaced 

 by Chippies, Pewees and Blue-gray 

 Gnatcatchers. The Whip-poor-wills 

 are here in force and I've secured a fine 

 set of eggs. These, I discovered in 

 hunting for the nest of a Black-and- 

 White Warbler, which was not hard to 

 find, as I had only to sit clown and 

 watch Mrs. Creeper for about fifteen 

 minutes, and was then possessor of a 

 nest of five fresh eggs. Chuck-will's- 

 widows have for the first time, in my 

 knowledge, appeared above the river 

 bottom. 



C. E. Pleas. 

 Clinton, Ark. 



The Black Vulture in Orleans County. 



It becomes my good pleasure to an- 

 nounce the occurence in our county of 

 the Black Vulture (Catlumsta atrata). 



On Saturday last, May 28th, a farmer 

 living near the Peat Swamp (which is 

 located about 2£ miles southwest of 

 Medina) caught a "large black bird" in a 

 "trap which he had set for the purpose, 

 having seen the bird about the place 

 several times before. 



I was informed of the capture, but 

 didn't pay much attention to it, as I 

 thought it was probably not anything 

 tare, but hearing more about it, and 

 hearing it spoken of as a "Turkey Buz- 

 zard," I thought I would investigate 

 the matter. 



Accordingly I arose this morning 

 '•'■before breakfast" and wheeled up to 

 Shelby on my bicycle and found the 

 Turkey-like bird to be one of the Cath- 



artidai indeed, but a Black Vulture in- 

 stead of a Turkey Buzzard. 



The farmer had it in a wooden cage, 

 and it appeared to be thriving well up- 

 on its diet of meat, which had been lib- 

 erally furnished it. 



The capture of this bird, together 

 with the shooting of a Turkey Buzzard 

 in the town of Clarendon last summer 

 by a Mr. Snyder, makes the family of 

 Cathartidai fully represented in our 

 county, a family which is of Southern 

 habitat and rarely reaches 40 o North, 

 although the Black Vulture is some- 

 what the more northerly of the two. 



To say the very least, the occurrence 

 of these two Vultures in Orleans county 

 is rare enough to be well worthy of 

 note. 



Neil F. Posson, 

 Medina, N. Y. 



A Day's Collecting in California- 



Bright and early on the morning of 

 the 17th of April last, my oological 

 friend turned up by previous arrange- 

 ment, for a day's collecting. 



It was a beautiful California day, not 

 a clond to be seen, the mountains show- 

 ing clear cut against the sky, and a cool 

 breeze from the blue Pacific tempering 

 what might otherwise have been an un- 

 comfortably hot sun. 



Our field of operation was to be a 

 ranch which lies upon the bluff above 

 the ocean, extending back a mile or so, 

 with numerons small hills and knolls, 

 covered in part with ancient live oaks; 

 and also a canon which runs through 

 the ranch whose sides are covered with 

 an almost impenetrable growth of oaks, 

 brush, poison oak, ferns and black-ber- 

 ry vines. 



Shortly after leaving home I discov- 

 ered a nest of the California Bush Tit, 

 which upon investigation proved to 

 contain but two eggs and which was 

 left undisturbed. My next find was a 

 fine set of five of Lawrence's Goldfinch. 



