THE OOLOGIST. ^■^(^'\)) l'^<^ 



17t 



great drought which rendered 

 regions, ordiaarily impenetrable, ac- 

 cessible to collectors. 



Wishing you all success for 1908, I 

 am, Very truly yours. 



B. G. WILLARD, 



Millis, Mass. 



Three Freaks. 



During the past summer I added 

 three interesting freaks to my collec- 

 tion. 



The first was a perfectly white 



woodchuck. It is a half -grown fm; is 

 snow-white, not a dark hair anywhere. 

 Its eyes were pink; even the toe-nails 

 and bottom of its feet were pink. It 

 was killed in an old slashing back in 

 the mountains nearly five miles from 

 the nearest farm, by a dog belonging 

 to a friend, who at the time was on 

 his way to attend to some gas wells. 



The second was also a woodchuck. 

 This one was black. It was seen by 

 a friend who told -me about it. So, a 

 few days later I went to that locality 

 and lay in ambusih in the edge of a 

 piece of woods along the river. After 

 spending the 'best part of the day the 

 chuck came out and I shot it. This 

 one was an old fm., black as a bear, 

 except the face, which is gray. 



The third freak is a meadow-lark. 

 It is very light-colored and has a fad- 

 ed-out whitish appearance. Its wings 

 are dull white. 



R. B. SIMPSON, 



Warren, Pa. 



Notes on the Black-billed Cuckoo. 



(CO'Ccyzus erythrophthalmus). 



The Black-billed Cuckoo (coccyzus 

 erythrophthalmus), is in my opinion 

 one of the most ibeneficial birds, as it 

 consumes a great numiber of the ap- 

 ple-tree tent caterpillars, (Clisiocampa 



americana), a hairy species which 

 many birds will not try to feed upon. 

 These caterpillars do a great deal of 

 damage to the young buds of apple 

 and cherry trees, the eggs hatching 

 so early that the young larvae feed 

 upon them before they have time to 

 0- en, thus destroying all the leaves 

 i.i each bud. 



I once watched one of these cuckoos 

 feasting upon a horde of the caterpil- 

 lars, and so fond of them was he, that 

 I approached within a foot of him be- 

 fore he noticed my presence, and vent- 

 ing his anger with a loud "kow ou," 

 retreated to the nearest tree. 



The birds arrive in the locality dur- 

 ing the third week in May but do not 

 commence to- build until the first week 

 in June, although I have a set taken 

 May 23rd, 1894. 



The nest is a rather loosely con- 

 structed affair of small twigs, leaves, 

 and sometimes a feather or two, and 

 in my experience has always been 

 lined with maiden-hair ferns. It was 

 a great surprise to me when I found 

 a nest lined with this material in a 

 locality in which I have many a time 

 looked in vain for this fern. This 

 seems to show that they sometimes 

 take their material from some little 

 distance from the spot selected for 

 the nest. 



The place selected for the nest is a. 

 small tree or bush usually in a fairly- 

 dry location and is built from six 

 inches to twenty feet above the 

 ground, and is of such small size that 

 it is not at all consipicuous. 



The nest which I mentioned above,. 

 I found in a scrubly apple tree at the 

 foot of a hay-covered field, while out 

 searching for meadow-larks on June 

 12th, 1907. I happened to look up and 

 among the foliage noticed a small nest 

 at the extremity of a limb about 15 

 feet above the ground, and on climb- 

 ing up, saw the female bird leave the 

 nest, which contained two eggs. 



