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THE OOLOGIST 



you received the appeal or let go of 

 your money. 



Such was our experience in the 

 spring of 1911, gentle reader; so look 

 out. While you may ultimately get 

 your money back— we did; you may 

 not be entirely satisfied with the 

 whole deal — we were not. Would yon 

 have been? 



Red Legged Black Duck(?) 

 It has broken out again- — we knew 

 it would. In The Auk, Vol. XXIX page 

 176, April, 1912, is an article by 

 Charles W. Townsend upon this sub- 

 ject. We are pleased to see that at- 

 tention is given by these distinguish- 

 ed gentlemen who occupy so much 

 space in The Auk to the suggestions 

 made in THE OOLOGIST, Vol XXVII, 

 page 87 that they might learn some- 

 thing relating to this supposed sub- 

 species by keeping a few of these 

 birds in confinement. A little more 

 practical horse sense and a good deal 

 less theorizing if applied to ornithol- 

 ogy would unravel many supposedly 

 abstruse problems. 



We have kept and bred Black Ducks 

 in confinement for years, and have 

 never yet seen anything that would 

 lead us to believe that any such sub- 

 species does or ever has existed. The 

 isolated experience referred to by Mr. 

 Townsend has not changed cur notion 

 in this respect. 



Hunting Warblers Nests. 



Several years ago on the afternoon 

 of May 28th I started out for a large 

 mountain valley nearby where farms 

 and clearings are unknown. 



The timber is mostly virgin pine 

 and hemlock with a good bit of hard- 

 wood in places. In places it is large 

 second growth with plenty of laurel 

 and bush underneath. 



A great place for the northern 

 breeders especially warblers. For over 



half a mile I passed through virgin 

 growth seeing and hearing plenty of 

 birds but the only nests to come to 

 notice were two of the Wood thrush. 

 Going slowly along on the grade of 

 the narrow gauge which a few years 

 ago was used to haul logs down from 

 farther up the valley, my attention was 

 drawn to a pair of very excited Ca- 

 nadian Warblers. 



The Canadians seem to always 

 make a fuss when a person gets in 

 sight so that it is difficult to tell 

 whether the nest is nearby or not. 



However I looked around a little 

 and in a nook in the roots of a big 

 stump on the bank of the tramway 

 I saw a nest in just such a place as 

 would be chosen by a Junco. Investi- 

 gating I found five fresh eggs. I was 

 positive it was the Canadians but 

 withdrew for a few minutes anyway. 



Returning I saw the female at home 

 and slipping up from one side I clap- 

 ped my hand over the opening and 

 caught her, but of course liberated 

 her again. 



Well pleased with this find I went 

 on up and very soon saw a small neat 

 nest on the horizontal limb of a hem- 

 lock. Climbing up I found a Black- 

 throated Greens nest newly finished. 



Next of interest was a newly com- 

 pleted nest of the Magnolia Warbler 

 down in a small hemlock. 



My next f nd was a Parula Warbler 

 tugging at some lichen. I watched 

 her make a few trips to the top of 

 quite a large hemlock. A few days 

 later I climbed the tree and found her 

 sitting on five eggs in her ball-like 

 nest of lichen, built in a thick bunch 

 cf small limbs. 



At a place where there was consid- 

 erable second growth hemlock a pair 

 of Blackburnian Warblers took up a 

 lot of my time. I tried to find the nest 

 but had to give up. 



Partly up the mountain side I found 



