THE OOLOGIST 



264 



Sage Grouse: Pinegrowth of u )per 

 zone; two species. 



Pine Siskin: Upper zone in coni- 

 fers ; common. 



Western House Wren: Upper zone; 

 many seen in favorable breedii.g 

 places. 



Red-shafted Flicker: Common. 



Brewer's Blackbird: One flock 

 seen often, and located at spring five 

 miles N. W.; lower zone. 



San Diego Redwing: Several pairs 

 located at spring five miles N. W.; 

 lower zone. 



Barn Swallows: Four pairs in barn 

 of rancher at the spring. 



Bank Swallows: In deep arroyo 

 with clay banks, near western limit, 

 lower zone. 



Blue-gray Gnatcatcher> In lower 

 and middle zones in cedars and ma- 

 hogany : 



Western Winter Wren: Upper 

 zone. 



Arkansas Kingbird: Lower zone, 

 near the spring in arroyo. 



Couch's Kingbird: Lower zone 

 with the other kingbird. 



Bullock's Oriole: Lower zone; two 

 pairs breeding. 



Three Flycatchers, but not sure of 

 species, as I do not take life until all 

 other resources are exhausted. 



Edward Treganza. 

 Salt Lake City, Utah. 



Accidental Death of Two Birds. 

 Mr. P. G. Howes' interesting pic- 

 tures in the November Oologist brings 

 to mind two similar incidents which 

 occurred during the spring and sum- 

 mer of 1910 at Bloomfield, N. ,T. On 

 the second of May, while searching for 

 the home of a song sparrow in a 

 blackberry tangle, I came upon the 

 mutilated body of a female robin 

 which had become entangled in this 

 clump of bushes through the medium 

 of a heavy cord which it was carry- 

 ing in its bill to a half-completed 

 nest in a cherry tree just above Ap- 

 parently the cord had been twined 

 about its legs and in flying through 

 the bushes the cord also became fast- 

 ened to the stalks of Lhe same, thus 



throwing the bird with great force 

 against the ground below and in 

 doing so dislocated its neck. Upon 

 closer inspection, I found that the 

 bones of the neck had been broken en- 

 tirely apart. 



Later, on June 7ih, the dead body 

 of a flicker was found firmly wedged 

 in a cavity in an apple tree which it 

 was excavating. The bird nad gone 

 in head first and for some unknown 

 reason had tried to turn about and 

 in doing so placed itself in such a 

 position as to be unable to extricate 

 itself. In its death struggles the 

 bird had twisted its body much out ot 

 shape and had broken several of its 

 principal bones. The sternum and 

 upper leg bones were fractured in 

 several places. The wing feathers 

 had been broken off and were buried 

 in the soft wood surrounding the body. 

 When found the bird had apparently 

 been dead but a few Hours, as the 

 blood stains were quite fresh. 



In addition to these a starling, which 

 was reared in my bird house luring 

 the past season, was found impaled 

 upon the long thorns of the honey 

 locusts just opposite from my home. 

 Just how this happened will never be 

 known, but the thorn was driven com- 

 pletely through, the bird's body, near 

 the breast. It mighL, possibly have 

 been the work of a shrike Dut per- 

 sonally think it was purely accidental 

 as there were no marks upon the 

 bird's body other than that caused by 

 the adjacent thorn. 



Louis S. Koiiler. 



Almost Another Ant Trarjedy. 

 In the February issue of the Oolo- 

 gist, Mr. Henry Hestuess, of Rock- 

 ford, Washington, spoaiis o^ finding a 

 meadowlark's nest with a young one 

 in it almost dead with ants with which 

 the nest was affected. A case some- 



