THE OOLOGIST 



129 



on oui" approach and flitted about while 

 we were there. Across the gulch at 

 the entrance of a smaller one and sit. 

 aated high up in a large pine with 

 poison oak covei'ing its trunk, was a 

 aest of the Red-tail. It undoutably 

 contained young as the parents were 

 circling overhead and carried a squirrel- 



In a dead pine standing by the side 

 of a small gully farther on, we found 

 three nests, two of which, a Bluebird's 

 and' a Nuthatch's, contained young and 

 a set of two incubated eggs of Cala. 

 Screech Owl was taken from the other. 

 Previous to this I have twice noted 

 three occupied nests in this same tree. 



In concljision I will say that my in- 

 tention was to collect sets^of the Nut- 

 hatch and that 1 hit it about right, hav- 

 ing taken a series of nine sets, each dif- 

 fering as to markings. 



L. W. Beokaw, 

 Westfield, Ind. 



Notes on the Least Bittern for '95. 



On the 25th of June, while rowing 

 upon a lake, I noticed a Least Bittern 

 f y over some bull-rushes which grew 

 tangled and coarse in an indentation 

 in the shore line. From former exper- 

 ience I suspected that he made his 

 home here and upon searching I dis- 

 covered the nests of these birds. 



They were all placed between one 

 and two feet above the water in the 

 thickest part of the rushes and could 

 not be seen until I was close upon 

 them. Considering the size of the 

 birds' the nests were rather large in 

 diameter, though of no great thickness. 



They were composed of dead and liv- 

 ing rushes interwoven about the grow- 

 ing stalks and were very little hollowed. 



The eggs were light gx'een in color or 

 rather whitish green and were slightly 

 larger than the eggs of the Mourning 

 Dove, but resemble them in shape. 



The first nest contained four eggs. 



the second three and the third three 

 young and one egg. 



On June 28th we were traversing a 

 bay of a large lake. At one end is a 

 hard bottomed shallow which is in no 

 Avay connected with the main land, but 

 stands exposed to wind and wave. 

 The wild rice has taken footing here 

 and mingled with the rushes grows tall 

 and thick. The unmusical cry of the 

 Yellow-headed Blackbird came con- 

 stantly to our ears and occasionally we 

 heard the piping of a Rail. 



I had found the Least Bittern breed- 

 ing here on previous years and once 

 more made search for them. As many 

 as six or eight pairs sometimes built in 

 this place but this season there were 

 onlj' three. 



The nests were similar to those of 

 the former colony, but instead of being 

 constructed of bullrushes they were 

 formed of wild rice stalks. One of 

 them was so close to the open water 

 that we saw it while rowing along the 

 border of the weeds. 'The other two 

 were well concealed. All of them con- 

 tained three eggs which were except- 

 ionally small sets as the nests of form- 

 er years have generally contained four 

 or live. 



It is said that the birds bring up two 

 broods in a season. I have found nests 

 in past years late in May but the ma- 

 jority of my finds have been during the 

 last of June. The nests of this latter 

 pei"iod may have been second nests, 

 but if so the young of the first nests 

 have always kept themselves so well 

 concealed that they were no where to 

 be seen. 



On the first of July I saw what I 

 thought was a Teal Duck flying across 

 a small lake. It was some distance 

 away, which magnified its size, for I 

 soon perceived that it was a Least Bit- 

 tern. It turned in at one end of the 

 lake and alighted in the rushes which 

 were not nearly as de^nse as where the 

 Least Bittern generally builds . 



