80 



THE OOLOGIST 



first but as it nears conipleticn is 

 shrill and unmistakable. I can well 

 remember when I first heard this song 

 way back in the late nineties and how 

 I searched for days for this bird, start- 

 ing out each morning with the de- 

 termination to find him at any cost 

 and how each night when returning 

 home, still unrewarded, but with a 

 more determined spirit for the next 

 day's search, and how after about ten 

 days of earnest endeavor I accidental- 

 ly came upon a thrush-like bird walk- 

 ing about under the May-apples and 

 Wild Geraniums and as I was watch- 

 ing him from an unconspicuous loca- 

 tion that he uttered this beautiful 

 song, and, before I was aware of my- 

 self, was uttering the words — Eureka, 

 I have found him. 



But to those who have made his ac- 

 quaintance this bird becomes a regular 

 companion on each walk through our 

 elevated tracts of woodland wherever 

 the vegetation is luxuriant and prolif c 

 and becomes a welcome addition to his 

 list of birdlife. 



As the month draws to a close, if 

 you are a good and close observer you 

 may find a bunch of dried grass, twigs 

 and earth placed directly on the 

 ground in the form of an oven or 

 bower, lined inside with fine grasses 

 and containing four or five creamy- 

 white, speckled eggs. 



Within a radius of five miles of my 

 home there are located five or six cop- 

 ses of the original cover and in this 

 restricted sections nests of this spe- 

 cies have been located each year since 

 1900, never more than one or two to 

 each of these copses. During the 

 spring of 1904 at Montclair Heights, 

 N. J., I had the good fortune to find a 

 nest of this bird on the 27th of May 

 containing two eggs. On the 1st of 

 June the set was completed and con- 

 sisted of five eggs which measured .81 

 X .60; .79 X .59; .80 x .58; .81 x .61 and 



.82 x .58, creamy-white and speckled 

 with chestnut brown, especially at the 

 larger end where the markings form- 

 ed a mantle which encircled the egg. 



Cn the 16th the nest was again vis- 

 ited and found to contain five fledg- 

 lings about a day old. The parents 

 were both in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood industriously searching for food 

 which they brought to the nestlings at 

 intervals of a moment or two. This 

 feed consisted of ground beetles, ants, 

 may-flies, scaleinsects, an occasional 

 grasshopper and spiders. Of this diet 

 which was purely insectivorous 

 throughout the entire time the birds 

 were in the nest, ants and spiders were 

 the principal insects which were 

 brought to the nestlings. Another 

 noticeable feature of the adult birds 

 was the fact that they carried the ex- 

 cretia of the young to a point about 

 one hundred feet from the nest and 

 dropped it there. About the ground 

 near the nest there was not the least 

 indication of either the remains of the 

 unconcerned food matter or the ex- 

 cretia indicating the extreme cleanli- 

 ness of the birds about their home. 

 Operations were conducted daily about 

 the nest for a period of fifteen days 

 when the young left the nest and be- 

 gan to travel about under the guidance 

 of the female. At this time the beau- 

 tiful nuptial song of the male ceased 

 and he hied himself off to parts un- 

 known as he was not seen in the 

 neighborhood after the young left the 

 nest. 



Bands were pldlted on each of these 

 youngsters just prior to their leaving 

 the nest and were designated as fol- 

 lows: "L.S.K. Bloomfield, N. J., Nos. 

 100, 101, 102, 103 and 104." Of this 

 lot two bands came back to me: One 

 (No. 100) from Punta Rassa, Fla. on 

 December 28th, 1908, from a Cleve- 

 land cook, who I now understand is lo- 

 cated somewhere in northern New Jser- 



