THE YOUNG ORNITHOLOGIST. 



T H E R L A C K- T H R O A T E D 

 BUNTING. 



This is one of oar commonest snm- 

 mer visitants, arriving Iiere just as 

 the leaves are bursting forth ; gener- 

 ally about the 1st of May. They 

 are birds of song; often seen on the 

 topmost bough of some tree, or on 

 swaying bush, pouring forth their 

 song. I have often heard them at 

 midnight hours. Their nesting loca- 

 tion is low ; I never saw a nest over 

 eight feet from the ground. Prepar- 

 ations for nesting begin the lOth of 

 May, and the first set is completed 

 about the 25th. The nest is made 

 of the finest kinds of grasses, and 

 lined with the bushy tops of grass. 

 Four eggs are tlie usual number, 

 though sometimes five, and in a 

 few instances I have found only three 

 eggii in a set, and incubation well 

 advanced. 



The Black-throated Bunting al- 

 ways rears two broods in a season. 

 The location of the first set is out 

 on the prairies and meadows, placed 

 in a clump of weeds from one to six 

 inches from the ground. Tlie young 

 are ready to fly by the 2oth of June. 

 The parents then retire to the sloughs 

 and smaller creeks, where a second 

 set is now laid. As they place their 

 nests in thick l>uslies, one not know- 

 ing their habits would [)ass by the 

 Inish and not see any signs of a nest. 



Oftentimes I have entered these 

 thickets and seldom failed to get one 

 or more sets. Upon this bird the 

 Cowbird is ever imposing its eggs. 

 In the first set it is a rare occurrence 

 to see a Cowbird'?. egg, but not so in 

 the last : hardlv a nest can be found 



that does not contain one oi' more 

 Cowltird's eggs in with those of the 

 Bunting. 



Their eggs are of a beautiful sky- 

 l)lue color. I have never taken any 

 sets later than Aug. 3d. In the early 

 part of September they depart on 

 their Southern migration, though 

 sometimes a few stragglers are seen 

 as late as the lOth of October. 



G. F. B. 



Beattie, Kansas. 



np:sting of the brown 



CREEPER. 



{CertJn'a /(imih'aris riifa.) 



This diminutive species of our ac((^ 

 fauna has been observed in our wild 

 woods nearly dYnry month in the 

 year. Its general habitat is the low 

 swampy woodlands where there is an 

 entangling of evergreen with black- 

 ash timber. Here it also selects its 

 nesting place, its usual site being old 

 black-ash stubs wliere the small 

 flakf s of bark have become partly de- 

 tached from the trunk, and curled 

 up. I have on several occasions, and 

 in different places, seen its nesting- 

 place, but only in one, instance have 

 1 taken its nest with eggs. In the 

 early part of ]M;iy, 1878, I was out 

 in North Wallace, on the farm where 

 I had previously resided for a number 

 of years, when I observed a pair of 

 these bird busily engaged at nest- 

 Imilding. The place was on the margin 

 of a beaver meadow, and the nesting 

 site between the bark or trunk of a 

 hemlock tree, nearly twenty feet from 

 the ground. Tiie fcm.ib' collected. 



