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ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 9-No. 9 



in her bill) finally began to move off in a 

 new direction, working gradually through 

 the shrubs to an open place where stood a 

 Butternut tree, whose leaves hung black 

 and dry from the effects of the sharp frost 

 of May 30th. Suddenly she disappeared 

 in the grass at the foot of the tree, where 

 we found the nest on the ground, close to 

 the trunk. The female left at our ap- 

 proach, half running and half flying along 

 the ground. The nest was built — outside 

 of dead beech leaves, inside of grapevine 

 bark. Except a single horse -hair there 

 were no other materials in it. It was not 

 concealed well and contained five young 

 birds that must have left the eggs about 

 five days before. 



I then took up a position on a rock, about 

 fifteen feet from the nest, and the bird 

 soon became sufficiently accustomed to my 

 presence to make several trips to it. The 

 identification was as good as if I had shot 

 the bird. As I have not been able to visit 

 the spot since, I know nothing further of 

 the history of this rare and interesting 

 family. I trust they will have such pleas- 

 ant memories of this moist, malarial spot, 

 that they will visit it again next breeding 

 season, although there may be a spark of 

 selfishness in the wish. . This is near the 

 northern limit of the breeding place of 

 Ilelminthophaga pinus. The other rarity 

 was taken not over a mile from the first. 



I happened to be in the country on the 

 Fourth of July, when a lady said to me 

 that she had a very beautiful bird's nest 

 she would like me to see, and to my sur- 

 prise brought out a nest I had never seen 

 before, but had heard much about, one 

 which in material and form stands apart 

 from any of our birds' nests. A few 

 pieces of the hanging gray lichen, found 

 so abundantly on dead trees in damp 

 places, were fastened at the upper end to 

 a twig so as to hang closely together, the 

 whole forming a mass about seventeen 

 inches in length and about four in greatest 

 thickness at the top and tapering to a 



point at the bottom. The whole shape 

 suggests a long tapering beard of some 

 venerable specimen of the genus Homo. 

 At or near the top the fibres were woven 

 to form a pouch-shaped cavity in which 

 was an egg of the Cowbird, which, by the 

 way, often gets its egg in before the own- 

 er of the nest. The cavity was hardly 

 over an inch in diameter and about two 

 and one-half in depth. 



I was much disainpointed not to see the 

 eggs, but the nest was a thing of beauty 

 and the lady generously gave it up in the 

 cause of science. It was found about the 

 1st of July in a hemlock tree on the bank 

 of the Housatonic River, hanging from a 

 low limb. 



Brewer, Minot and Ingersoll have writ- 

 ten interesting descriptions of this nest, 

 which is that of the Blue Yellow-backed 

 Warbler {Panda americana.) — C. K. 

 Aver'dl, Jr., Stratford, Fairfield Co., Ct. 



Notes from Rehoboth, Mass. 



PART II. PASSERES. 



Of the smaller breeders new phases 

 have been opened up. Several varieties 

 have been found breeding quite plentiful- 

 ly which have been considered rare in j)ast 

 seasons, while many common breeders 

 have been quite scarce. Of the latter no- 

 ticeably are the Blue Jay and Golden- 

 winged Woodpecker, only one set of each 

 being found, while for '83 were recorded 

 twelve sets of the blue thief and fourteen 

 of the "Flicker." The Scarlet Tanager 

 while being by no means rare in former 

 seasons, were common ; nine nests being 

 found by a friend and myself in a day's 

 tramp, June 2. They were all in like sit- 

 uations, in small, slender Oak trees, over 

 twenty-five feet up. The nests were slight 

 structures of rootlets, through which the 

 eggs could be seen, and uniform in ap- 

 pearance, as though composed of the same 

 batch of rootlets as it was — and of a 

 light drab in color lined with a few spears 

 of soft grass. The Black-billed Cuckoos 



