114 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 9-No. 9 



Birds of the " Panhandle," W. Va. 



THE JOURNAL OF IlEV. W. E. HILL FROM JANUARY TO JUNE, 

 (INCLUSIVE) 1883. 



PART VII.— CONCLUSION. 



June fi. During an early morning walk observed the 

 Robin, the Catbird, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak and many 

 other birds feeding on the Seventeen Year Locusts which 

 have recently appeared in this locality in great abundance, 

 in many cases taking them on the wing. My walk took me 

 by the way of the nest of the Rosebreast, {Zamelodia ludo- 

 viciana), previously noted, and I was interested in finding 

 the male gallantly relieving his mate in the monotonous 

 duties of incubation, nor did he prove unfaithful to his 

 trust, never quitting the nest, although I approached to the 

 very foot of the bush holding it. 



Identified the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, (Coccyzus ameri- 

 canus), a new addition to my list. See previous entry for 

 description. 



The High-hole, another name for the Golden-winged 

 Woodpeckers, was doubtless first so called from an idea 

 that it always located its nesting-holes high up in a tree. I 

 came across one of these to-day containing young, in a 

 stump not six feet high or more than eight inches in diam- 

 eter, and only about twenty inches from the ground. 



There are no nests in all our woods so numerous as those 

 of the Wood Thrush. I counted to-day as many as half a 

 dozen within a limited bound, all containing eggs or 

 young. 



There is a no more eccentric bird than the Robin in its 

 choice of a nesting-site. I observed a nest to-day that 

 was located on the top rail of a fence by the roadside, and 

 only partially sheltered by a " lock" rail. Another, I re- 

 cently saw, was saddled to a limb no thicker than a man's 

 wrist, and fully forty feet from the ground. Another was 

 placed in the crotch of au apple tree in my orchard but two 

 feet from the ground. Still another in the early spring was 

 built squarely on the sill of a second story window of- my 

 house, but slightly protected by a grape-vine. 



This evening noted a pair of Cedar-birds or Cherry-birds, 

 (Ampelis cedrorxnu), in my orchard. Shot the male for a 

 specimen before I observed they had begun to build a nest 

 in an apple tree. 



June 7. During a hasty drive, along the (Ohio) river- 

 road opposite to the town of East Liverpool, O., near to 

 the foot of the " Virginia hills," very steep and heavily 

 timbered, the most abundant bird I met with was the Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak ; was surprised to find them in such- 

 numbers. At least two of their nests came under my ob- 

 servation. Saw also several individuals of the American 

 Redstart and one nest. This nest was placed in a naked, 

 outstretching limb, almost barren of leaves, some thirty 

 feet from the ground. It seemed to be a small and com- 

 pact structure, the whole head and tail of the female, occu- 

 pying the nest, projecting from its edge. 



June 12. Found a nest of the Indigo-bird. This was 

 placed in the fork of a maple sprout no thicker than a man's 

 finger, about five feet from the ground, and which in a light 

 wind that was prevailing was swayed almost to the ground. 

 Most writers ^represent the nest of this bird as a little loose- 

 ly and slovenly constructed; but this particular nest was 

 certainly not an inferior piece of bird-architecture. It was 

 a little bulky for so small a bird, but neatly and compactly 

 put together, and with certain ornamental features of its 

 own. The outer materials consisted chiefly of dried leaves 

 and light dried weed and grass stalks. There was a thick 

 inner lining of very fine dried grasses with a few white 

 horse hairs. The outside walls were stuccoed with numer- 

 ous bits of wool, which doubtless met the bird's ideas of 



ornamentation. The nest contained two freshly laid eggs, 

 white in color and unmarked. 



I visited the Wood Thrush's nest, to which reference was 

 made under date of June 1, as containing two eggs of the 

 Cow-blackbird. It held one young Cowbird, apparently 

 about a week old, which the Thrushes were tending with 

 all the devotion and solicitude, as if it were flesh of their 

 flesh and bone of their bone, and doubtless they never knew 

 any better. Upon approaching the nest, the young bird 

 threw itself out falling like a stone. Endeavored to replace 

 it but it would as often scramble out again, the old birds 

 all the time manifesting all the concern possible for parent 

 birds. From the above facts I arrive at the conclusion 

 that many a Cow-blackbird has been raised by the Thrush, 

 no less than by the Red-eyed Vireo, the Maryland Yellow- 

 throat and the other smaller birds that were long supposed 

 to be the only responsible foster-parents of the Cowbird. 



June 14. In making a call upon a friend in the country 

 the nest of the Blue Jay was pointed out by him in a large 

 sugar maple not a hundred feet from the house, placed in 

 the fork of two large limbs fifty feet from the ground. By 

 the aid of a tall ladder I was enabled to reach the lower 

 limbs, when the tree offered no further obstructions to my 

 ascent, but the birds did. They fought me at every step, 

 repeatedly striking my hat with their wings, and finally 

 knocked it from my head. It was not without difficulty I 

 could succeed in parrying their blows aimed at my head 

 and face. Before reaching the nest the young birds, three 

 in number, had all scrambled out, their inexperienced 

 wings carrying them to the ground in safety. The outer 

 walls of the nest, (now before me) are built of coarse sticks 

 and weed stalks, with a layer of mud, giving it solidity and 

 firmness, and the whole lined with fine tortuous stems and 

 rootlets, forming almost a flat bed. 



The nest of the House Wren was also pointed out to me, 

 built in the wooden stirrup of an old saddle hanging against 

 the inside wall of a stall. It contained four young birds 

 about readv to leave the nest. 



A pair of Bobolinks, (Dolwhonyx oryzrvorus), came un- 

 der my observation in a large meadow at the side of the 

 road. While these birds are very abundant in some por- 

 tions of the country, they are rarely seen in this section, 

 and more rarely known to breed, as they seem to have done 

 in this instance. The breeding plumage of the male is 

 black and white. The female, and the male in the fall are a 

 yellowish brown, streaked with black, when they are known 

 as Reedbirds or Ricebirds. 



June 15. Observed five Owls all perched in one small 

 Spruce tree in a densely wooded ravine. Shot one of these 

 which proved to be a young, but full grown Screech Owl, 

 (Srnjiti asio.) 



Shot a Hooded Warbler, {Myiodioctes mitratus), in this 

 same locality. A pair of these birds manifested great alarm 

 at my presence, indicating that they bad a nest near by, 

 but a very thick growth of Rhododendron on the steep 

 hillside reudered a search for it impracticable. After shoot- 

 ing the male another made its appearance and joined the 

 widowed female in her cry for a few moments and then 

 disappeared. Thus I had pretty good evidence of at least 

 two pairs of these elegant birds breeding in that locality. 

 The following is a description : above, yellow olive ; below, 

 pure yellow ; top of the head, neck and throat, jet black ; 

 forehead and sides of the head, bright yellow. The black 

 coloring is quite suggestive of a hood, hence its name. 



June 19. The nest of the Y'ellow-billed Cuckoo came 

 under my observation. This was built in a White Oak sap- 

 ling, in a small hillside wood near the public road, on a 

 horizontal limb about fifteen feet high, and supported by a 

 cluster of small twigs. It was composed mainly of dead 

 sticks and twigs, with a thin lining of the strips of the 

 outer covering together with the blossoms of certain plantSj 



