106 



THB OOLOQIST 



Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher. 

 (Milvulus Forfivatus). 



This species arrives about tlie mid- 

 dle of April in fair weather, and is 

 seldom later than the first of May 

 under severe conditions. 



Two males were observed on the 8th 

 of April this year, and several indi- 

 viduals of the first of May last year. 



This bird generally breeds on the 

 prairie, rarely nesting in small groves 

 of trees, and less often near the edge 

 of woods or thickets. The nest is 

 composed of a few small twigs for 

 framework, the material for the in- 

 terior being cotton, string and grass, 

 roots, and the lining is made of hair. 



The breeding season is only about 

 three months from the time of the 

 first eggs, to the fiedging of the last 

 young. Some birds may rear two 

 broods, but the majority only one. 



My earliest date for eggs was the 

 14th of May and my latest the 16th of 

 July, 1910. On May 14th, 1910- a 

 cloudy day, with a drizzling rain until 

 noon, I boarded the 8 o'clock car 

 hound for "Lake Como" a summer, 

 picnic, boating, bathing and fishing 

 resort about six miles West of town. 

 Arriving at Como, I repaired to the 

 pavilion to await a change in the 

 weather which appeared about noon, 

 when the drizzling ceased, and the 

 sun became barely visible behind the 

 clouds. 



I ate lunch and immediately started 

 down a cross country lane to reach 

 the "Weatherford road, my destination 

 being a creek known as Farmers 

 Branch, about lour miles Northwest 

 of Como. 



The lane leads through a strip of 

 Woodland but I only collected one 

 set of three Gray-tailed Cardinal and 

 Cowbird, from a nest placed on a limb 

 overhanging the road. 



The object of the jaunt was to 

 search the banks of Farmers Branch 



for Killdeer nests, as my brother had 

 collected two sets for me on the creek 

 a few days previous while hunting 

 plover. 



The Killdeer is a rare breeder in 

 this locality and I was eager to ob- 

 tain a few sets. A few Killdeer were 

 to be found along the creek, but I soon 

 realized the futility of looking for 

 eggs. 



I then started down the road intent 

 upon examining an old country school- 

 house to and from which I had seen 

 some Martins flying. However there 

 were no Martin nests to be found. 



About two hundred yards beyond 

 the school house, alongside the road 

 was a small hackberry tree, and a 

 few feet from the tree on a telephone 

 wire in the usual attitude of his 

 species, was the male Scissor-tail. 

 Upon my approach he saulted me in 

 the customary manner of rising into 

 the air some thirty or forty feet, clos- 

 ing and spreading the feathers of his 

 tail and uttering his familiar twittle, 

 twittle, tut, twittle, twittle, twittle 

 tut, twittle tut, twittle tut. On near- 

 ing the tree, a female left her nest and 

 joined her mate, circled only a few 

 feet above head, pouring forth their 

 noisy clatter while I collected a set 

 of three slightly incubated eggs. 



Taking a cross country cut for the 

 carline, I had progressed about one 

 and one half miles when I came to a 

 ravine along which there was a 

 scanty growth of sycamore trees. 

 Starting down the ravine, I had not 

 gone far when another male rose 

 from a barded wire fence, and the 

 female flew from a small sycamore, 

 which contained the nest and set of 

 four fresh eggs. The pair of birds 



voiced their noisy protests, as I 

 placed the eggs in my collecting case. 

 A quarter of a mile down the ravine 

 was a large sycamore which I went a 

 little out of my way to inspect. The 



