THE OOLOGIST 



167 



and would run about unconcernedly 

 over the prairie, evincing little or no 

 solicitude over the welfare of the nest. 

 This was sunken flush with the level 

 of the ground and composed entirely 

 of fine dry grasses. It was built close 

 against a lump of dried dung of cattle 

 and was totally unprotected in any- 

 way from the fury of the elements. 



July 6th, a nest was found at the 

 base of a Cactus with three full fledg- 

 ed young. As in all the other nests 

 noted, this one was sunken flush with 

 the level of the ground. 



And still later on July 23d as I was 

 leaving, a nest was found by seeing 

 the male bird run from it. It was 

 placed flush with the ground built of 

 dry grass and partially protected by 

 a chip of cattle dung. The nest held 

 one fresh egg. 



Besides these nests several empty 

 ones were found, some protected by 

 dung or cacti, while others were sun- 

 ken flush in the ground, far from any 

 protection. 



Judging from the abundance of the 

 birds, a person could, earlier in the 

 season, collect a good series of eggs 

 in this locality. At the time of my 

 visit, most of the young were on the 

 wing and many were already gather- 

 ed into small flocks, probably family 

 parties; forerunners of the immense 

 hordes of the winter. 



Richard C. Harlow. 



Late Nesting of the Cedar Waxwing 

 and Indigo Bird. 



On August 1 7th, 1911 I flushed a 

 Cedar Waxwing from the nest 8 feet 

 up in a Black Locust (Robinea Psen- 

 docacia) sapling and on examination 

 the contents were found to be four 

 eggs which were nearly fresh. This 

 seems very late nesting for this spe- 

 cies in Central Pennsylvania, the us- 

 ual time for sets being June 15-30. 

 The books usually class the Cedar 



Bird as a rival of the Goldfinch for 

 late nesting but here in Pennsylvania, 

 the young Waxwings are usually out 

 of the nest by the time the Goldfinch 

 has laid her eggs. 



On August 18, 1911, not fifty yards 

 from the Waxwing's nest mentioned 

 above, I flushed an Indigo Bird from 

 her nest three feet up in a clump of 

 Blackberry briars under a Black Lo- 

 cust Plantation. The nest held three 

 slightly incubated eggs. 



I do not offer these notes as "rec- 

 ords" but rather as noteworthy cases 

 of late nesting of two of our common 

 birds. The Indigo birds often have 

 fresh eggs of second sets in late July 

 here. Other birds which bring up the 

 rear of nesters here in Pennsylvania 

 are Robins, Song, Field Chipping, 

 Grasshopper, Vesper and House Spar- 

 rows, House Wrens, Cuckoos (both 

 species). Goldfinches, Barn Swallows, 

 Chewinks and sometimes Redheaded 

 Woodpeckers and Bluebirds. Most of 

 the late nests of these birds are of 

 course, second sets, but rarely with 

 the case of the Goldfinches and the 

 Cuckoos. Richard C. Harlow. 



Gray Kingbird Nesting in Southern 

 Wisconsin. 



While out on a trip after nests and 

 eggs of some species not in my collec- 

 tion, I came upon this nest, with the 

 bird on. This was on June 3, 1896. 

 As the bird left the nest I noticed at 

 once that she was a stranger to me, 

 and after looking into the nest at the 

 three pretty odd looking eggs, also 

 htrangers, I decided to leave them for 

 the present, and look up concerning 

 both bird and eggs. The nest did not 

 look like a nest of the Kingbird (Ty- 

 rannus tyrannus) ; had a darker look 

 in particular. At home I looked up 

 everything I could find about King- 

 birds, wrote several, even wrote 

 Robert Ridgway from whom I prompt- 

 ly got no answer. 



