46 



THE OOLOGIST 



with the impressions made upon the 

 mind of an enthusiastic Oologist of a 

 triumph of this kind. — Editor. 



An Apology. 



Owing to an illness confining Ye 

 Editor to his bed for the first time in 

 more than twenty years, much of our 

 ornithological and oological corres- 

 pondence has been neglected, and we 

 tender this as an excuse. Being now 

 on the mend we hope to catch up with 

 the same in the course of the next few 

 weeks. 



Do Birds Return To Old Nests? 



Whether birds, especially migratory 

 ones, return to the same nests year 

 after year is a question of much in- 

 terest to the naturalist. We know that 

 the Owls and Hawks will use the 

 same nest year after year if not dis- 

 turbed. But the smallest birds that 

 spend the winter in the south — How 

 are we to know if the same pair re- 

 turns to the nesting place, or even to 

 the same locality, unless we have some 

 special mark to recognize them by? 



.In looking over my notes I found a 

 record of a female Purple Grackle that 

 had only one leg. This bird was carry- 

 ing nest material and was caught in 

 ,a tree by a piece of string, and was 

 found hanging head down by one leg. 

 The leg was broken when the bird 

 •was found, and the broken leg was 

 ■cut off. This one legged bird return- 

 ed each year for five years, and nest- 

 ed almost in the same place. 



A pair of Pewees have nested in the 

 porch at my summer cottage near the 

 Mississippi river for about fifteen 

 years. They failed to return in the 

 spring of 1912. I have always believed 

 that they were the same pair. Prob- 

 ably both the old birds died during 

 the winter in the South. 



The little House Wren comes back 

 in the spring and makes his nest in 



the same box, or old tin can that he 

 used the year before. If the nest box 

 is not in the same place, how the lit- 

 tle fellow will scold and make a fuss 

 about it. There is an island in the 

 Mississippi near here. This island is 

 grown over with willows so thick that 

 it is almost impossible to walk 

 through. A pair of Green Herons have 

 made this willow patch their home 

 for several years, during the nesting 

 time. If they are not the same pair of 

 birds, then why is it that there is a 

 pair of nests almost in the same place 

 each year? 



Whit Harrison. 

 La Crescent, Minn. 



Bluebird Notes From Trenton, N. J. 



In the August number of The Oolo- 

 gist, the writer mentioned under 

 "Field Notes," the great scarcity of 

 Bluebirds in the Delaware Valley. 

 Since then and in fact ever since the 

 first of last year, on all of my tramps 

 through woods and fields, along can- 

 als and streams, both on the Pennsyl- 

 vania and Jersey sides of the Dela- 

 ware, my one thought has been, 

 "Where are the Bluebirds?" 



Sunday morning, December 8th 

 beamed on us bright and clear with a 

 temperature of about 40 degrees, and 

 at 11^ o'clock as I had completed my 

 usual morning tramp along the River 

 road and just as I was passing under 

 the new Philadelphia and Reading 

 Railroad bridge located just a little 

 east of the foot bridge that crosses 

 the Delaware at Yardley, 'Pa., my 

 thoughts at the time lamenting the 

 fact of not having seen a single bird 

 all morning, my attention was sudden- 

 ly attracted to a small flock of Blue- 

 birds, roving about in the tops of two 

 or three trees along the side of the 

 road and bobbing in and out of the 

 holes in the top part of the trunks. 



As my eyes feasted on this sight, a 



