THE OOLOGIST. 



221 



saw a pair of these tyrannidce. flying 

 above and toward a point ahead of me. 

 Finally the female alighted on top of 

 one of the tall Osage Orange trees, on 

 an overhangiagl^branch of which was 

 placed the nest. The female, after fly- 

 ing to and fro near its mate nttering 

 cries of alarm as if to secure her my 

 protection, finally alighted on a more 

 distant tree. After a hard climb of but 

 a few minutes, I was^.safely on the 

 limb beside the nest; but what was my 

 surprise to find, not a complete set of 

 one species, but one egg of a 

 Mourning Doye and two eggs of the 

 Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. The latter I 

 left, but the former I carried with me 

 and placed in a nest of its'own species. 

 In a few days (June 4, 1888) I made it a 

 point to visit the Flycatcher's nest 

 again. This time I found a fine set of 

 five eggs of the Scissor-tailed Fly- 

 catcher with incubation just begun, 

 and, as they lie before me, measure 

 respectively .93 x .70, 1.00 x .68, .94 x 

 .70, .95 X .71 and ,.93 x .68. The nest 

 was composed of weeds and rootlets, 

 and lined with hair, cloth and woody 

 fibers, and measured as follows: 

 Diameter, outside 4^ in., inside 3 in.; 

 depth, outside 4i in., inside 2^ in. The 

 composition of nest plainly shows it to 

 have been built by the Flycatcher, and 

 I have come to the conclusion, that the 

 Mourning Dove must have deposited its 

 egg when the Flycatchers were out for- 

 aging, as it would have been a very 

 impolite as well as a very unsafe thing 

 to have done, had the Flycatchers been 

 at home. I have never heard of such a 

 daring deed being done by such a meek 

 bird as a Dove, but the evidence cer- 

 tainly goes to prove such. The meas- 

 urements of the Flycatcher's eggs are 

 larger than the measurements given in 

 the various works on oologj', but, hav- 

 ing a good view of the parent bird, I 

 am sure that my identification is cor- 

 rect. Let us hoar from others. 



VV. Morgan Maktix, 

 Wellington, Kansas. 



[Friend M's. "Seissor-tail" would if 

 captured have proven an Arkansas 

 Kingbird. — Ed.] 



In the Maine Woods. 



I passed the greater part of last May 

 and June in Maine woods and made, to 

 me, some vei-y interesting discoveries. 

 I found two sets of Magnolia Warbler's 

 eggs, one of two eggs, the other of 

 three, both much iucubated. Accoi'd- 

 iDg to Davie's book these are very 

 small sets. 



In the bottom of the former nest was 

 a Cowbird's fresh egg buried. There 

 seemed to be only one nest, but the 

 bottom was sulficiently thick to cover 

 both sides of the egg, and I should not 

 have found it had I not been in the 

 habit of collecting the nests with the 

 eggs. I have I'ead of such cases, bu 

 this is the first one that ever came to 

 my notice. Are such cases common? 

 [Not ineomnion. — Ed.] 



I have several specimens of the 

 Shrike that nests in Maine, together 

 with the eggs, but I am unable to tell 

 which one of the Shrikes it is from 

 Coues' disci'iptions. Will you please 

 inform me? [White-ruraped. — Ed.] 



1 found that the Slate-colored Junco 

 and the Winter Wren rear their young 

 as far south as Orient, Me., and in a 

 very level country. 



A. B. Call. 



An Ornitliological Leech. 



A companion and myself while on a 

 collecting trip during the ])a^t season, 

 found a nest of the House Finch situat- 

 ed about five feet from the ground in 

 the lower branch of a live oak. On ap- 

 proaching the nest we were surprised 

 to find the bird sitting thereon, asleep, 

 as we at first supposed, but further ex- 

 amination revealed life to l)e extinct. 

 Removing her from the nest we made 

 a |)os< ??2or^e??i examination and found 



