54 



THE OOLOGIST 



article by Guy W. Day, of Sidney, 

 Ills., in February issue of The Oologist, 

 I have wondered if the Illinois read- 

 ers recognized the record as probab- 

 ly the first authentic set of Barn Owl 

 eggs taken in Illinois. I have care- 

 fully perused the lists and have been 

 unable to unearth an Illinois record. 

 I have met the same difficulty in try- 

 ing to find a bona fide record from our 

 sister states of Indiana and Wiscon- 

 sin. A number of works give the Barn 

 Owl as resident in these particular 

 states but no one seems to have the 

 set of eggs and data to show for it. 

 It is undoubtedly a more common 

 resident in all three states than the 

 average student realizes. As data of 

 its nidification is so scarce, the nests 

 must be particularly difficult to locate 

 and Mr. Day is to be congratulated. 

 I am watching that same stump for 

 the next set. 



I have an incomplete set of 5 eggs 

 taken from an ice-house near my store 

 in Philo in 1910. The Owls nested 

 within 100 feet of my collection but I 

 was in ignorance of their presence un- 

 til the old ice-house was demolished. 



Last year a pair made their home 

 in our village and the hideous throat- 

 rattling cries were heard every night 

 Ibut a fine tooth comb search all over 

 town failed to reveal the nesting 

 place. Isaac E. Hess. 



Philo, Ills. 



Two Rare Birds in Colorado. 



When Prof. W. W. Cooke, then of 

 the Colorado Agricultural College, 

 published his bulletin "The Birds of 

 Colorado," in 1897, the Common Tern 

 (Sterna hirundo) had not been taken 

 in Colorado. On May 14, 1908, there 

 were three of these birds about a 

 small lake at Windsor, in Weld Coun- 

 ty, and on September 16, 1912, there 

 were a dozen or more of them about 

 the lake, and on September 19 I no- 



ticed several of them again; they re- 

 mained for some days. They seemed 

 to be feeding on small fish; they 

 would fly at some little distance above 

 the lake and dart down into the water 

 and catch their prey in their beaks, 

 after the manner of the Kingfisher. 



On August 17, 1911, I noticed a 

 strange Flycatcher feeding about my 

 garden; a common Kingbird was at- 

 tacking it. It proved to be a Crested 

 Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus). It 

 was a young bird and must have wand- 

 ered some distance, for I saw no 

 others like it, and the books tell us 

 that this bird is not found farther 

 west than Nebraska. So far as I 

 know my record is the only one for 

 Colorado. 



Geo. E. Osterhout. 

 Windsor, Colo. 



House Wren Destroys Eggs. 



Several years ago I lived in the 

 country. One summer day while sit- 

 ting on a beam in a barn, enjoying the 

 breeze that blew through the open 

 doors and gables, I witnessed the fol- 

 lowing: 



A Robin had built its nest on the 

 two wooden pegs that join the top 

 brace to the top plate of the barn. The 

 nest contained three fresh eggs, and 

 was about twenty feet from where I 

 was sitting. 



A House Wren had a nest at the 

 other end of the barn, the entrance be- 

 ing a knothole. The wren had been 

 fiying in and out for about ten minutes 

 chattering and scolding as wrens do, 

 when it flew up to the pegs on which 

 the nest rested, and from there to the 

 rim of the nest. Then it gave three 

 or four pecks, and as I got up it flew 

 away. I climbed up to the nest and 

 found that each egg had been punc- 

 tured once and one of them twice by 

 the little rascal. Do wrens ever suck 

 other birds eggs? Perhaps some of 



