Nov. 1884.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



135 



Dr. J. B. Holder presented a report " on 

 the Eligibility or Ineligibility of the Euro- 

 pean House Sparrow in America" which 

 was emphatically against the Sparrow. 



Mr. J. A. Allen presented the report of 

 the committee "on Faunal Areas" show- 

 ing the work that was being done in their 

 branch of investigation. 



A committee was appointed for the pro- 

 tection of North American Birds and their 

 eggs against wanton and indiscriminate 

 destruction. 



The Committee on "Bird Migration" re- 

 ported that the returns received from ob- 

 servers were exceedingly voluminous and 

 valuable. Some of them have been tabu- 

 lated by Dr. J. M. Wheaton and Dr. A. K. 

 Fisher. It was determined to amalgamate 

 this committee with the one on "Faunal 

 Areas " under the title of " Committee on 

 the Migration and Geographical Distribu- 

 tion of North American Birds." Interest 

 was added to the meeting by the presence 

 of several eminent British ornithologists. 

 The officers of the Union were re-elected — 

 bringing a very successful meeting to a 

 close. 



Anomalous Nidifications. 



Under this somewhat breezy title, I will 

 present a few notes on curious nesting, 

 taken from my journal of '84, which I hope 

 may call forth the experiences of others, 

 as the subject is one that is full of interest 

 to us all. 



Beginning with May 11th, the first genu- 

 ine surprise of the season was the starting 

 of a White-rumped Shrike, (X. ludovlcia- 

 nus excubitorides), from an old Grackle's 

 nest, in an oak, fully twenty-five feet from 

 the ground. Last year I took a clutch of 

 Grackle's eggs from the same nest, and 

 thinking it would be just as well to pass it 

 again while making a cut across the fields, 

 in the hope of securing a set this season, I 

 was astonished to find this strange tenant 

 had added a few straws and feathers to the 

 lining and gone to housekeeping under 



rather remarkable circumstances. A clutch 

 of six eggs rewarded my climb through 

 the tangled branches. 



On the 20th of May, I had the good for- 

 tune to secure a set of three fine eggs of 

 the Broad-billed Hawk, (JButeo pennsyl- 

 vanicus), in a deserted nest of the Com- 

 mon Crow, from which I had removed a 

 clutch of eggs on the 28th of April. I find 

 it to be such a common practice of the 

 raptores — this appropriating abandoned 

 Crow's nests — that I suspect in many in- 

 stances where a certain Hawk's nest is de 

 scribed as resembling that of a Crow, the 

 work may be safely attributed to the latter 

 architect and builder. I also took two sets 

 of the Cooper's Hawk, {A. cooper i,) from 

 unequivocal Crow's nests, in the same 

 piece of woods. 



May 26th, a remarkable nest of the 

 Yellow-headed Blackbird, (Xanthocephalus 

 icterocephalus), is to be noted, in which 

 the usual basket-like structure of rush 

 leaves was protected from the vicissitudes 

 of the weather by the building of another 

 affair, resembling the foundation of one of 

 their nests, directly over it. In the lower, 

 or true nest, access to which was obtained 

 by a neat entrance on one side, were four 

 eggs. 



Speaking of Chewink's nests and their 

 height from the ground, I can tell of one 

 that lowers, or rather raises any record 

 that I have seen, considerably. While 

 strolling along the bottoms of a small 

 creek near Lake City, Minn., one day about 

 the middle of last July, the path led my 

 two companions and me under a tangled 

 mass of shrubbery caiised by a grape vine 

 matting the tops of a number of oak sap- 

 lings together in a compact sort of leafy 

 table, which resembled pictures we have 

 seen of the banyan tree, as much -as any- 

 thing I can recall to mind, with its flat top 

 and many trunks. Suddenly a rustling 

 overhead attracted our attention and I, be- 

 ing in the advance, looked up just in time 

 to see a Chewink, (J 3 , erythrophthalmus,) 



