30 



THE OOLOGIST 



Owl is plentiful and the American 

 Long-eared Owl is seen occasionally; 

 there is a report that a Snowy Owl 

 was s.een near Plymouth, Mich., about 

 four miles from here, but this is a rare 

 occasion, as the Snowy Owl but rare ly 

 visits this region. 



The Bob-white and Ruffed Grouse 

 are common, and I observed a male 

 Brown Creeper for the first time, al- 

 though it is recorded as not uncommon 

 in Michigan. I have also observed the 

 Purple Finch for the first time since 

 1919. 



In the winter of 1920, the Evening 

 Grosbeak visited this region for the 

 first time; even the oldest residents 

 here had never seen the bird before. 

 It was here in great numbers all 

 through the winter, in flocks varying 

 from one dozen to two hundred. How- 

 ever that was its first appearance and 

 it has not been seen since. 



James Wood, 

 Northville, Mich. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



The Gulf of Mexico is on the south 

 and east of Texas and Wilbarger 

 County is one of the counties just 

 across the Red River from Oklahoma, 

 just a few hundred miles from the 

 Gulf, and no large body of water 

 closer in these parts, and gives us — a 

 dry stream about ten months in the 

 year, being merely a run off for ex- 

 cessive rainfall. Pease River, running 

 entirely across Wilbarger County, 

 empties into the Red River about 

 eight miles east of Vernon, the county 

 seat of Wilbarger County, and it is a 

 fact that had these rivers been filled 

 with beer instead of water, Vernon 

 would not be so much, as Pease River 

 has nothing on "Red." The general 

 makeup of both rivers is low banks, 

 wide beds, being nothing more than 

 sand wastes, with sand hills irregular 

 on both sides. These rivers have 



water holes scattered along and these 

 ranging in depth from a few inches to 

 several feet. Along in April and first 

 days of May nearly all of the small 

 waders are along these holes and by 

 the hundreds, and mixed with the 

 waders. Least Terns are plentiful. 



Being so far from any water of any 

 size, it did not occur to me the Terns 

 could be breeding in such a locality, 

 but three years ago, while just ob- 

 serving the birds at one of these water 

 holes my attention was centered on 

 the fishing of the Terns. Taking an 

 individual I watched him dab down in 

 the water, rise up and head north; 

 the next one observed did the same, 

 and so on until several had headed 

 in the same direction. Immediately 

 I headed north and in less than a mile 

 soon located a colony of about fifty 

 pair of Least Tern on a sandy stretch 

 in the bend of Pease River, nests — 

 yes, one for every pair, three eggs in 

 each nest. This colony would not 

 cover over three or four acres — some 

 nests would be comparatively isolated, 

 while others would be eight or ten feet 

 apart. 



Stranger still, in this colony were 

 as many nests of the Snowy Plover — 

 three eggs in each nest — as there were 

 of the Tern. No attempt at nest mak- 

 ing is made by the Terns — ^merely 

 scratching out a small hollow — ^while 

 the Snowy Plover invariably placed 

 small stones around their nest, re- 

 sembling the tell tales of the Rock 

 Wren nest entrance. 



Li. Li. More, 

 Vernon, Texas. 



