THE OOLOGIST. 



65 



be seen' through it, and bunches ai'e 

 very common, we decided to call again 

 next day. Sure enough he was there 

 in full song, and our feeliogs may be 

 better imagined than described when 

 he rose with a hovering llight, his 

 orange throat seeming to draw a line 

 against the dark hemlocks, and drop- 

 ped directly into the bunch we had seen 

 the day before. 



Given: A nest sixty feet froai the 

 ground and seven feet out on a limb, 

 together with the wind blowing ''half a 

 gale," and the problem is not easily 

 solved. But by connecting the limb 

 with the one above it, and then cutting 

 it off, my brother drew the nest and its 

 contents into safety, alias the .egg box. 

 Meanwhile I had been of inestimable 

 assistance in "coaching" his movements 

 from the ground. To make sure of 

 identity, for "people will talk," we col- 

 lected the male bird as he was the one 

 that lit in the nest at tirst. 



The eggs, which were live in number, 

 were about one-third incubated, but in 

 1891 we found a nest in the same tree 

 that was not completed untiljune 15th. 

 They show very little variation in size, 

 shape or color being greenish-white m 

 ground color, dotted and blotched all 

 over, though most ttiickly on the larger 

 end, with different shades of purple and 

 brown The measurements are, .68x 

 .53, .67X.54, .67x,54, .67x.53. .67x.o3 

 inches. 



The nest, which was set into a thick 

 cluster of small tv/igs, is composed of 

 hemlock twigs, rootlets, a few pine 

 needles and bits of usnea, all woven 

 rather loosely together, and thinly lin- 

 ed with horse hair. While cutting off 

 the limb, the birds were vei-y tame, of- 

 ten alighting on the shaking branch, 

 (this is the hardest part for the oologist, 

 but we console ourselves by knowing 

 that in ninety-nine cases out of a hun- 

 dred, the bird will have another nest 

 and set of eggs in two weeks' time.) 



This varies excessively with the de- 



scription given by Audubon, who says 

 his nest was built five feet from the 

 ground and lined with feathers, hair 

 and down. The eggs of Minot and J. 

 W. Preston resembled those of the 

 Chestnut-sided Warbler (D. Pennsylva- 

 nica) haviug a white ground. Minot's 

 egg measured .65x.50 in. Nuttall gives 

 them as .70x.50 in., the ground color 

 white and often tinged with green. 

 Maynard gives the ground color as pale 

 greenish white, size .44x.63 to .45x,65 

 inches. The different writers give the 

 number of eggs to a set as "three or 

 four," none mention five. 



From the above the following con- 

 clusions may be made: Number of 

 eggs in set, from three to five; size 

 of eggs, from .44x.63 in. to .50x.7O 

 in. and .54x.67 in., color ground of 

 white or greenish white, spotted and 

 blotched with different shades of pur- 

 ple and brown. Nests composed of 

 hemlock twigs, bark, etc., with and 

 without a lining of feathers, but al- 

 M'ays of hoi'se hair; height from ground, 

 from five to sixty feet. 



I will conclude by agreeing with Mr. 

 Burns in the Nov. Oologist where he 

 implies that a church yard is a more 

 than ordiuarily good place for birds. 

 In the same cemetry with the Black- 

 burnian, we found nests and eggs of 

 the Chipping Sparrow, Olive-sided Fly- 

 catcher, Blue-headed Vireo and Myrtle 

 Warbler, while I am positive that a pair 

 of Redstarts and Black-throated Green 

 Warblers were breeding there, although 

 we failed to locate the nests. 



J. H. Bowles, 

 Ponkapog, Mass. 



Norway's Bird Islands 



Translated for the Oologist from Dr. Brehm's 

 •'From the North Pole to the Equator." 



West of Norway in the Atlantic, and 

 extending far up into the Arctic ocean 

 there is an archipelago of almost count- 

 less rocky islands, the Lofoden Islands. 



