THE OOLOGIST. 



57 



vice-president, Elias F. Hadley, of Day- 

 ton; second vice-president, Herman T. 

 Bohlman, of Portland; secretary, Dar- 

 sie C. Bard, of Portland; treasurer, D. 

 Franklin Weeks, of Portland. 



The business having been completed 

 the rest of the afternoon was devoted 

 to reading the remaining essays. A 

 paper by Rey Strykcr on "The Audu- 

 bon's Warbler" was enthusiastically re- 

 ceived by the society after their long 

 task of legislating. Darsie C. Bard fol- 

 lowed with a paper on "Some Methods 

 of Keeping Ornithological Records." 



The final session was called to order 

 by the president at 7:45 p. m. Up to 

 now the society had not taken the time 

 for any thorough study of the collec- 

 tions. So, with the general consent the 

 remaining business was hastily dis- 

 patched, and, taking our manuals spent 

 the rest of the evening in studying and 

 discussing the collection. This was, 

 undoubtedly, the most enjoyable and 

 instructive part of the whole meeting. 



At 11:30 the third annual meeting of 

 the Northwestern Ornithological Assoc- 

 iation came to an end. That we were all 

 loath to leave expresses it tamely; let it 

 suffice to say, however, that the meet- 

 ing was a success in every respect, and 

 that we each, one and all, parted, feel- 

 ing that we had been benefited by this 

 annual union and that our share of the 

 work for the coming year would be car- 

 ried out to the best of our ability. 



Owing to illness Sec. Arthur L. Pope 

 was unable to attend the meeting. It 

 is hoped that before long his health 

 may be regained. 



The fourth annual will be held in 

 Portland. — Darsie C. Bard, Secretary, 

 N. 0. A. in The Oregon Naturalist. 



Mocking-birds and Gnatcatchers. 



The most common bird in this sec- 

 tion of the country is perhaps the Mock- 

 ingbird. They remain the year through 

 and begin nesting about the last of 



March or first of April. The earliest 

 nest I have recorded is dated March 

 28th containing four fresh eggs and sit- 

 uated in a cedar tree about seven or 

 eight feet up. 



The nest is composed of grass and a 

 downy weed which is very abundant 

 about here and is always, so far as I 

 have been able to ascertain, lined on 

 the outside with a thick mass of thorny 

 twigs. 



The birds seem to prefer the cedar 

 trees to any other situation, as at least 

 three-fourths of the nests found by my 

 self were placed in cedars. 



Our yard contains a great many of 

 these trees and is truly a Mockingbird 

 "Rookery." I have found as many as 

 thirty nests of this bird within a radius 

 of fifty yards of our house; the greater 

 number of which contained four eggs 

 each and only one contained five, none 

 except incomplete sets contained less 

 than four. 



I have found only one set of "runt" 

 egg'^, this was placed in a myrtle tree 

 about ten steps from the public road 

 and about forty yards from the bouse. 

 The eggs were ahiii^st exactly the size 

 of a Long-billed Marsh Wren's and 

 were perfectly fresh, the bird being on 

 the nest when I discovered it. 



The Mockingbird rears two broods in 

 in a season as I have found fresh eggs 

 as early as March 28, as before stated 

 and as late as July 29. I have also no- 

 ticed young birds just beginning to fly 

 as late as August 7th. 



This bird is often caged as it sings 

 very well when in captivity. 



In the early summer of 1893 a tree 

 containing a nest of four half fledged 

 young "mockers" was blown down in a 

 storm; the young birds were found in a 

 pool of water almost drowned but I 

 took them and placed them one in each 

 of four other nests in the yard, where 

 they recovered and grew to be tine 

 birds under a foster-mother's care. 



The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is also 



