THE OOLOGIST 



153 



village is situated about thirty-five 

 miles east of Lincoln, nearly eighteen 

 miles west of the Missouri river, and 

 along a small stream bearing the same 

 name. The woods are mainly of bur 

 oak and white elm, with a sprinkling 

 of red oak, scarlet oak, walnut, bass- 

 wood, hackberry, hickory, locust, box 

 elder, ash, plum, cherry, etc., with 

 the usual accompanying shrubs and 

 vines. 



In this sylvan, hilly region, I gave 

 my time to the study of such wood 

 birds as were to be found. During 

 the day I observed and identified 

 thirty-five different kinds. Of these 

 the catbird was far the most abund- 

 ant and I saw over fifteen of them. 



Next in order of abundance was the 

 mourning dove which was to be found, 

 especially in the morning, along rail- 

 road beds, but was very rarely to be 

 seen later on in the day. Then there 

 was the townee which is quite fre- 

 quently, if not often, found hereabouts. 



I have usually not seen many tanag- 

 ers on one trip but on this one I came 

 across them frequently. They build 

 their nests so as to overhang the paths 

 and roads, and far out on branches, 

 where it was extremely difficult to se- 

 sure them. The bird itself was usually 

 to be seen on the top of a high tree 

 where it would not be very conspicu- 

 ous. 



At this time of the year the black- 

 birds, the red-winged and the cowbird, 

 are not to be seen frequently; but I 

 was surprised how scarce they really 

 were. I saw only two birds the whole 

 day, one early in the morning and an- 

 other late at night, and both were the 

 red-winged. 



The downy woodpecker was also 

 scarce while the red-headed woodpeck- 

 er was seen several times. On obser- 

 vation the red-headed woodpecker 

 was found to nest chiefly in a dead 

 limb of a willow tree, overhanging a 



creek, pond, or some other body of 

 water. 



Kingfishers were also seen along 

 the cr"eeks and in the marshes, es- 

 pecially the latter. This bird nests in 

 the ground but I saw two sporting 

 about a nest as though it was their 

 own which was in a thick growth of 

 young willows, some twenty feet from 

 the ground. 



Other birds frequently seen were 

 the indigo-bird, goldfinch, crow, blue 

 jay, pewee, nuthatch, kingbird and 

 the cardinal bird. 



Fred L. Fitzpatrick. 



A Red Start Record. 



Here are my four years' experi- 

 ments with American Redstarts along 

 the Concord River. This river, as it 

 will be remembered, was formerly the 

 favorite life resort place of famous 

 men such as Thoreau, Emerson and 

 Sanborn. As follows: 



May 18, 1911j A redstart's nest 

 (partly completed) found in a young 

 ash tree about fifteen feet up. 



May 13, 1912. Redstart caught busy 

 constructing a new nest in the crotch 

 of a young ash tree about seven feet 

 up. 



May 15, Redstart, No. 2, nests in 

 white birch about 25 feet up. 



May 20, Redstart, No. 3, builds a new 

 one in black birch about seven feet 

 up. 



May 23, Redstart, No. 4, busy at 

 nest building in black birch about 

 twenty feet up. 



May 18, 1913. Redstart's nest in 

 white birch about twenty feet up. 



June 20, two more redstart's nests 

 found in low elevation, (4 to 6 feet 

 from the ground). One in an elder- 

 berry bush. 4 eggs in each nest. Be- 

 lieved to be second breeding. 



July 17, 1913. Another redstart's 

 nest in black birch about 12 feet up. 

 Three eggs. 



