THE OOLOGIST. 



71 



hatching and one egg almost fresh. 

 Now the question arises, did she bring 

 those three hatched eggs from another 

 nest of hers, or did she steal them from 

 one or more of her kind? In either 

 case, how did she get the eccg^' to the 

 nest, for she certainly never l)rought 

 them to the hatching point in seven 

 days allowing her a day to lay each 



egg. 



Now for my second discovery, on the 

 11th of June I found a typical nest of 

 the Black-billed Cuckoo; they build 

 nearer the ground than the Yellow- 

 bill, containing two eggs of Black-bill 

 and one of Yellow-bill. The eggs ex- 

 hibit all the characteristics of typical 

 eggs of the two species as to color and 

 size. Now did the Yellow-bill lay in 

 the others nest or did Mrs. Black-bill 

 take to theiviug. The eggs were not 

 incubated and probably deserted as 

 they were sinking somewhat into the 

 nest. Adding these facts to the Yellow- 

 bills habit of laying her eggs at inter- 

 vals of about three days, sitting con- 

 tinuously and often having fresh eggs 

 and young birds in the same nest, and 

 the habit of sitting on the nest for days 

 before any eggs are laid, which peculi- 

 arity seems to belong to both birds, 

 with the parasitic habits of the Euro- 

 pean bird and 1 think they may safely 

 be called one of the odd birds. 



1 note Mr. Low's article in a recent 

 OoLOGiST, confirming my suspicions in 

 regard to the Short-eared Owl, thus 

 adding another breeder to the list. 



In regard to Mr. Posson's statements 

 about the Horned Lark, I would say 

 that I shot one in company with Long- 

 spurs a short time before moving into 

 Orleans County, but have never seen 

 one since to my knowledge here. All 

 taken by me in Orleans County have 

 been of the Prairie variety. 



I have in my possession an incom- 

 plete set of Mourning Warbler taken 

 June 13th in same locality as set of five 

 taken last year. They are of an en- 



tirely distinct type of coloration, 

 blotches being larger and entirely in a 

 wreath, closely resembling some sets 

 of Black-and-White Warbler but slightly 

 smaller. They are a trifle larger than 

 the five eggs taken last year. Unfortu- 

 nately there were only two eggs and 

 the collector did not leave them for a 

 complete set. 



Eknest H. Short, 

 Orleans County, N. Y. 



Purple Grackle. 



The first Grackle colony I ever visit- 

 ed was about twenty miles from New 

 York City in Bergen Co., New Jersey. 

 It was in some 'spruce and pine trees 

 surrounding a farm house. On May 

 16. 1893, I made my first visit. The 

 place was full of nests, but only one in 

 each tree, and that was placed in the 

 top. Most of the nests contained 

 young, some had four, others five and 

 there were two with six. I saw four 

 sets of eggs, two of four, one of fire 

 and one of six. 



I visited it again April 28, 1894. This 

 year I was a little early but found two 

 sets of four and two of five. 



The way they build is this: First 

 they get a lot of rags, straw, paper, 

 etc. (In one nest there was a rag 

 about three inches wide and three feet 

 long.) This is collected for the found- 

 ation and is placed on one of the 

 branches and against the central main 

 branch near the top, often the very 

 top. This is in the spruce trees, but in 

 the pines they build out on the branch 

 es, or they often use last year's nest 

 for the foundation. After they get a 

 firm foundation they cover it with 

 horse-manure and mud and on this 

 they build an almost perfectly round 

 nest of grass and mud, lining it with 

 plenty of fine grass, also a few horse- 

 hairs. 



The nests measure inside 5^ inches in 

 diameter and 4i inches in depth, so the 



