THE OO7OGIST 27 (' 
discovery of a Brown Thrasher’s nest 
on the ground. I have found several 
such situated nests and all in well 
wooded country where bushes, briers 
and brambles abounded. The last one 
found, however, is worthy of remark 
for several reasons. 
It was found on June 17, 1910, at 
Blue Grass, Philadelphia County, Penn- 
sylvania, and contained four half-grown 
young birds, though I first discovered 
the site on May 15th, but couldn’t then 
guess what kind of a nest it was going 
to be. It was placed in a depression 
two inches deep in the ground in a 
bunch 6f Silidago weeds two feet high 
and a foot thick, beside a thin clus- 
ter of black alder bushes three feet 
high, in a field, close to an alder thick- 
et, and within thirty feet of a rail- 
road. On June 25th, the nest was 
empty. It was made of daisy stalks, 
grass stems and some dry leaves and 
seed strips, lined with grass stems 
and vine tendrils, loosely constructed 
and is one of the very few Thrasher’s 
nests I have ever seen without a foun- 
dation of twigs or sticks. It is the 
only ground nest of Toxastana rufum 
T have ever found not under a clump 
of bushes or briers. Its situ resem- 
bled a Chewink’s more than a Thrash- 
er’s and it also looked like a Towhee’s 
nest. 
R. F,. MILLER. 
ee 
Notes on the Night Hawk. 
On July 24th while walking through 
a corn field, I flushed the mother bird 
from the nest. She went through the 
usual antics trying to draw me away 
from her eggs. I took a photo of the 
eggs in situ, and came back the next 
day and secured two negatives of the 
mother bird on the nest. I did not 
get to see the nest again until August 
8th, making two weeks’ absence. 
Found the two young birds as shown 
135 
in photo. Owing to very hot weather, 
the small birds seemed to be suffering 
from the heat. The ground being very 
hot, and as the nest was in quite an 
opening, corn stalks did not make 
much shelter. Quite a few weeds had 
grown up since the picture was made 
of the mother birds. I tried to get a 
negative of her fiuttering along the 
ground, but found it a very difficult 
matter. 
I nearly always find them nesting 
on side hills in this locality, this being 
the first I have found nesting in a gar- 
den, HENRY J. RUST. 
Winter Months, 
The long winter evenings are with 
us. This is no reason why the woods 
do not at this time of year contain 
much that is interesting and instruc- 
tive to the ornithologist. 
Our resident birds can now be seen 
contending with the rigors of the ele- 
ments. The great numbers of winter 
visitants from the far Northern climes 
furnish a new source of investigation. 
Many new records and observations 
will come under the eye of the natur- 
alist who spends a few days in the 
field or timber during the coming win- 
bers 
The evenings can be well spent in 
re-arranging, straightening up and 
classifying the collection, closing up 
old accounts and making new ex- 
changes and visiting with the speci- 
mens in the cabinet as you live over 
the hours and days of the past in 
which you got them. 
