108 



THE OOLOQIdt 



minutes I always took a full set of 

 eggs but if she didn't return never a 

 full set, so they don't quit the nest 

 when you put your hand in it before 

 or after they lay. Now, I lind out they 

 don't lay every day, but two or three 

 times a week, but you can always find 

 the bird at home, and I believe they 

 go to sitting on first egg layed, as I 

 have taken some far advanced and 

 others fresh in some nests, as this is 

 the way I found them. 



But what a risk a fellow runs to 

 take them, nearly always in a dead 

 rotten tree. Most of the time high. 

 One day I climbed a dead ash tree 

 sixty feet up and took a set and the 

 next day passing through there the 

 tree had fallen and broken into two 

 pieces where the nest was. 1 wouldn't 

 be penning these lines today if it had 

 broken while my belt was around it. 



I find that you can get a second set 

 close to the first in two weeks, if you 

 watch close, as I've taken a second 

 set from the same bird, only ten yards 

 from the first, but twice is as many 

 times anyone should take any bird's 

 eggs. So much for the Pileated, but 

 hard to get. 



G. E. Pilquist, 

 Dardanelle, Ark. 



NIGHT SiNGING OF THE YELLOW- 

 BREASTED CHAT 



The writer would be more than 

 pleased to hear from any observers 

 from different points in the range of 

 this species as to the:r experiences 

 concerning the singing at night of 

 these birds. 



On the adjacent hillsides near my 

 home in Richfield, N. J., this songster 

 appears about May 8th and from that 

 time until early August is heard daily 

 singing when, of course, its music is 

 dimmed by the reason of the moulting 

 season. During the breeding and 

 nesting periods every night the males 



are heard from sunset to sunrise, they 

 apparently being so elated with their 

 mates and offspring that they seem to 

 forget that night is the time for sleep 

 and rest. Dr. Chapman, in his Warb- 

 lers of North America, says: 



"Heard at night, when especially, if 

 it be moonlight, the Chat often sings 

 freely, the performance takes high 

 rank among the songs of North Ameri- 

 can birds," but 1 am led to believe from 

 twenty years of observation that the 

 environment in which the nest is lo- 

 cated bears an important part on 

 these moonlight sonatas. At numer- 

 ous points in Northern Passaic Coun- 

 ty, pairs have been observed through- 

 out their nuptial periods and the 

 nightly concerts have been rather ab- 

 breviated as to those which I now hear 

 nightly. At Butler, Midvale, Pompton 

 Lakes and Hawthorne, where I had 

 time to spend in intensive work, the 

 night songs only consisted of a few 

 snatches uttered probably once or 

 tv/ice during a night. But here in 

 Richfield, the males sing sometimes 

 for fifteen or twenty minutes at one 

 time and they may be heard in similar 

 periods throughout the night. Is is 

 possible that the nearer they are lo- 

 cated to the northern limits of their 

 natural range in their respective 

 faunal area bears any significance on 

 their night singing? I would very 

 much like to hear from observers in 

 the southern New York counties along 

 the northern border of New Jersey 

 and adjacent Pennsylvania counties 

 bordering on the Delaware north of 

 the 41st parallel. Louis S. Kohier. 



