360 



THE OOLOGIST 



eggs during my many years ex- 

 perience in the field. 



June 4th. Found nest containing 

 three eggs of the Kingbird. It was 

 placed upon a small limb of a Syca- 

 more tree 35 feet from the ground and 

 six feet from the main trunk. The 

 birds used a large amount of greasy 

 cotton-waste in the nest which had 

 been thrown from locomotives on the 

 the railroad, close by. One of these 

 eggs was fresh and the other two had 

 been incubated about 24 and 48 hours, 

 showing that this species commences 

 to incubate as soon as the first egg is 

 laid. 



Paul G. Howes. 



My husband found what we believe 

 to be a curious set of four eggs of the 

 Red-winged Blackbird. One egg was 

 marked with a very plain figure 5, 

 another with a 4, another with a 3 and 

 the other with several 2's. 



Mrs. F. R. Fowler. 



Rails. 



Probably most of our readers are 

 familiar with the well known laugh- 

 ing call of the common rails and prob- 

 ably some of the them may be able 

 to throw some light on other rail 

 calls, which to me have always been 

 rather a puzzle. The King rail and 

 the Yellow rail are easily identified 

 by call notes, and so far as I know do 

 not use any that are liable to mislead 

 the observer into thinking that the 

 notes were made by either the Vir- 

 ginia or the Sora, but the two latter 

 are puzzles to me. 



I once heard the laughing call made 

 by a rail and immediately a sora ran 

 in sight and I thought I was justified 

 in concluding that it was the author 

 of the note. This note is heard also 

 from a little marsh near here where 

 nothing but soras are usually seen, 

 nore are any others supposed to be 

 there. On another occasion on the 



edge of a large marsh on Lake St. 

 Clair two of us heard the laughing 

 call and, on going over, flushed a Vir- 

 ginia Rail, and since then have heard 

 this call from a little marsh where 

 nothing but Virginias lived so far as 

 known. 



This question therefore arises: — 

 If we admit that both rails have many 

 similar calls, can we say that either 

 species has a call belonging to itself 

 alone, and if not, are there definite 

 variations by which one species can 

 be told from the other by a compar- 

 ison of these common call notes? 



The single musical whistling tone 

 is another common note I have also 

 felt justified in ascribing to both 

 species. The same remark applies to 

 their ascending musical note resembl- 

 ing that of the gold finch. 



The great difficulty with these birds 

 arises from the fact that they are 

 nearly always hidden when calling. 

 On a very few occasions I have seen 

 the birds in the act of making a note, 

 but some of these opportunities have 

 only added to the puzzle because they 

 prove conclusively that a certain note 

 which I supposed to have been made 

 by one species was really made by the 

 other as well. 



There are doubtless some of your 

 readers who are very favorably situat- 

 ed with regard to these birds and may 

 be able to distinguish between notes 

 of the Virginia and Sora and if such 

 persons will kindly give us the benefit 

 of their experience, they will be mak- 

 ing a valuable addition to Rail Liter- 

 ature. 



W. B. Saunders. 



Migration Note Of Interest. 



In sorting and classifying a collec- 

 tion of Venezuela bird skins, recently 

 received at the Museum, I find the fol- 

 lowing common birds familiar to all 

 eastern collectiors. The data given 

 below gives an idea of the distance 



