68 



THE OOLOGIST ',' . 



avoid a collision thpy left the nest from 

 the north side and approached from the 

 west, in which direction — and only a 

 few rods away— all the material seemed 

 to be obtained. 



While at the nest their actions were 

 quick, nervous; and they placed the 

 sticks in several places before satisfied, 

 but they did not remain at the nest 

 more than half a minute. 



C. F. Stone, 

 Branchport, N Y. 



More About Wood Pewee's Nest. 



I read with interest in the March 

 number of the Oologist Mr. C. H. 

 Johnson's notes from Oneida county, 

 N. Y. 



The notes on the Wood Pewee espec- 

 ially attracted my attention. As there 

 is considerable difference in the con- 

 struction of the nest of the Wood Pewee 

 in Oaeida county, N. Y., and Parke 

 county, lad., I will state it as briefly as 

 possible: 



Here the Wood Pewee builds a very 

 thin nest, so thin that the eggs can in- 

 variably be seen through the nest which 

 is suspended between the small forks of 

 a drooping beech limb, from four to 

 nine feet from the ground, generally 

 about five or six feet. 



I judge about nine tenths of the nests 

 are overhanging some lonesome stream 



Only one nest out of the many I have 

 examined ever contained any lichens 

 whatever. 



WiNFIELD S. CaTLIN. 



Annapolis, Ind. 



Queer Nesting- Sites. 



There have been at different times 

 articles published in the Oologist 

 about queer nesting sites. 1 do not 

 think any of these compare with a nest 

 of the Phoebe found by mo on June 15, 

 1889. at Lake Elmo, Minn. 



A friend and I were walking along 



the road close to the shore of the lake 

 when we came to a vacant house. 

 Thinking we might find a Phoebe's nest 

 we walked around it, but found noth- 

 ing. As we were about to depart 1 saw 

 a Phoebe fly under the eaves of a well 

 house which was back of the building, 

 and there on the guard of the pulley 

 through which the rope ran, to which 

 the small buckets are tied, was a nest. 

 It was made of the material ordinarily 

 used and directly over the middle of 

 the well. If it had not been strongly 

 fastened to the iron guard it would have 

 fallen in. 



It contained three eggs of the Phoebe 

 and two of the Cowbird. Incubation 

 was well advanced in the Phoebe's, but 

 the Cowbird's were fresh. 



On May 30, 1890, I again visited the 

 place and in the same well found a 

 Phoebe's nest fastened to the side of a 

 board two feet below the surface of the 

 ground. It contained four eegs. 



J M Akmstrong. 

 St. Paul, Minn 



The Spotted Sandpiper. 



In looking over the Oologist for 

 March, page 52, Mr. C. H. John- 

 ston mentions collecting a set of 5 eggs 

 of the above mentioned species 



Is not this an unusual occurrence? 

 I have never found or heard of more 

 than four in a set of this species before. 



This is our most common Sandpiper 

 here in Ontario, arriving about the mid- 

 dle of April and fresh eggs may be 

 found after the first week in May until 

 the middle of June. The nest is usually 

 placed in a slight depres.sioa in the 

 ground and i.s composed of a few dry 

 gra-ses and is often at the bottom of 

 some bunch of weeds or tall grasses. 

 The eggs are laid points together and 

 vary greatly in markings. 



In this locality the birds become 

 quite numerous in the fall, especially 

 along the lake shore whe e they remain 

 for a few days and they disappear 

 about the 15th of September. At this 

 season they become exceedingly fat. 

 N. Harrv Mekking. 

 Port Hope, Ontario. 



