DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 15 



have I seen any of its eggs in the many nests of warblers, 

 vireos and sparrows which have been examined. 



Only a comparatively few spots on the plateau are well suited 

 to the needs of the Red-winged Blackbirds. In these few spots 

 they are found in rather small numbers. They nest in tussocks 

 of grass or sedge, possibly also in some of the thinly-clad mow- 

 ing-fields. Their habits, so far as observed, are in no way 

 remarkable. At Long Pond and one other locality, I have 

 heard them utter a note so different from any which I ever 

 heard elsewhere, that at first I could make no guess as to its 

 source. Is this an indication of a difference which might be 

 magnified into the basis for a geographical race ? 



The Meadow Lark is found only in the cultivated sections, 

 where its habits appear entirely normal. 



The Orchard Oriole occurs so rarely that it probably should 

 be in the class of stragglers. 



The Baltimore Oriole is more numerous, sometimes straying 

 into the heavy woods, where it seems strangely out of place. 



The Grackles of the Pocono region are said, by those who 

 have taken specimens, to be of the unmixed purple form. 

 Their habits, however, are appreciably different, from those of 

 their lowland brethren. Avoiding the wide-spread forest en- 

 tirely, and the cultivated lands less completely, they congregate 

 for nesting purposes at the various lakes which dot the surface 

 of the plateau. A clear, open sheet of water is not especially at- 

 tractive to them, but where dead stubs rise from the water and 

 half-rotted logs and stumps strew the surface, they assemble 

 into veritable colonies. 



Their nests are placed in cavities in the dead stubs. Only 

 one nest among the fifty or more which have come under my 

 observation was placed in any other position. This one was in 

 a small birch which was growing from the top of a dead stub, 

 entirely surrounded by water and rising about four feet above 

 it. This nest was of heavier construction than those placed in 

 cavities. Holes made by flickers are quite acceptable, as well 

 as those formed by decay and weathering. Holes at any level 

 are used, from the highest productions of the diligent flickers, 

 to those just clear of the water. 



