64 



THE OOLOGIST 



it. The female, who is much smaller 

 than the male, deposits the eggs, 

 which are of a dirty white color and 

 speckled with brown, in the little 

 nest. Mostly one brood is reared dur- 

 ing one season, but sometimes even 

 two. The Chewink derives its name 

 from the resemblance of its note to 

 these syllables, while those calling it 

 Towhee hear the sound, "to-wick," 

 "to-whee." Its song is rich, full, pleas- 

 ing and is uttered only when the bird 

 has risen to the branches above its 

 nest. The Chewink's favorite place is 

 the border of swamps and bushj' 

 fields. It is generally looking for 

 earthworms and larvae of insects, on 

 the ground among the dead leaves. 

 Once in a while it refreshes itself on 

 the dropping berries and fruits. When 

 startled the bird rises about 10 to 12 

 feet from the ground and calls its 

 famous note. On account of its habit 

 of flying low and grabbing among the 

 leaves it is often called the Ground 

 Robin. The Chewink is one of our 

 most useful birds. 



Wm. C. Martin. 

 Illinois. 



The Swallow-tailed Kite. 



I think it was about May 10th, 1889 

 — my note book recording the incident 

 was destroyed by fire — that I sallied 

 forth on a warm sunny morning in 

 quest of nests of the Swallow-tailed 

 Kite. A brisk walk of four or five 

 miles took me to the large cypresses 

 of Billums Creek bottoms, where I had 

 found a few nests in the past, but 

 generally in inaccessible situations to 

 me, equipped as I was then. But now 

 I had an extra good pair of climbers 

 and a belt of extra length, so I felt 

 like tackling most any kind of a tree. 

 A cypress is a very easy tree to climb 

 if it is not too large, as the wood is 

 very soft and yielding, allowing the 

 spurs to be socked in as far as they 

 will go, with little effort. 



Sure enough, when I got down 

 among the lofty cypresses, just above 

 their featherly tops, a beautiful Swal- 

 low-tail floated lazily, describing the 

 matchless graceful curves that only 

 this bird can. The Turkey Vulture 

 appears to float in the air with very 

 little effort, but it takes the Swallow- 

 tailed Kite to do the trick with abso- 

 lutely no visible effort whatever. Oh 

 man! you may fly, but not in a thous- 

 and centuries can you hope to fly as 

 does this beautiful creature. 



The bird in the air proved, as I sus- 

 pected, to be the male, for I soon lo- 

 cated the nest with the tips of the tail 

 of the female showing. But shades 

 of Pinchot, what a tree! At least ten 

 feet in diameter at the base, tapering 

 to about eight feet a few feet up and 

 holding this for at least forty feet, 

 when it widened or flattened out to 

 about ten feet wide and four feet thick 

 and then divided into two prongs, 

 each of which was about four feet in 

 diameter, towering afolt at an angle 

 of about ninety degrees, for more than 

 100 feet. 



Near the top of the west prong, a 

 limib four inches in diameter had been 

 blown off, causing three young sprouts 

 to grow out and shoot straight up for 

 about six feet. Right in the tops of 

 these young branches the nest was 

 placed on a network or platform form- 

 ed by small horizontal branches put- 

 ting out from the three main shoots. 

 The latter were about 1% inches in di- 

 ameter at the bases and much too frail 

 to bear rry weight. 



The main trunk was covered with 

 large wart-like protuberances, appar- 

 ently stuck on to make what would 

 otherwise have been an almost impos- 

 sible task, a cinch. The trunk was 

 hollow, and by striking on it a heavy 

 club it gave a sound that caused Mrs. 

 Kite to leave her nest in haste. She 

 was at once joined by her mate and 

 both birds remained in the vicinity as 



