48 Iowa Ornithologist. 



very abundant, the former especially so in the spring. Among the thickets the 

 Screech Owl finds seclusion by day and a plentiful supply of birds and field- 

 mice at night. Here also the Great Northern Shrike makes his winter home 

 and is always sure of a Tree- Sparrow, or if he goes into the next field he may 

 vary his diet with a Horned Lark for dinner. In the little grove of maples at 

 the south-east corner I flushed a Woodcock several times one hot afternoon in 

 August. Here, too, I have seen a Marsh Hawk, and in one of the plumb trees 

 near the south fence a Green Heron once ventured to ahght. Speaking of 

 Herons reminds me that I once saw a Night Heron alight in the top of a large 

 boxelder standing by the little creek and about a hundred yards south of the 

 little grove of maples. And also that during the migration one spring a boy 

 found an American Bittern sitting in a brush heap just back of a house not 

 more than a hundred yards south-west of the place I have been describing. 

 The Bittern allowed itself to be captured and placed in a cage where I saw it a 

 few days later. I might also state that in the bushes and small trees across 

 the road and not a hundred feet distant from the small grove where I flushed 

 the Woodcock, I have shot a Winter Wren, Long-billed Marsh Wren, Yellow- 

 bellied Flycatcher and Black-billed Cuckoo. Furthermore, one very hot Sun- 

 day afternoon in July a Great Horned Owl, pursued by a mob of Blue Jays, 

 paused for a few minutes in the top of one of the large maples which stand 

 close by the florist's house. 



These grounds furnished a good field for the Oologist. Here is a list of the 

 birds I have found nesting on the premises and it is probable that this does not 

 represent more than one-half the varieties which nest within its boundaries : 

 Robin, Catbird, Brown Thrasher, House Wren, Turtle Dove, Bronzed Grackle, 

 Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Cedar Bird, American Goldfinch, Rose-breasted 

 Grosbeak, Field and Chipping Sparrows, Yellow-bellied Cuckoo, Black-capped 

 Chickadee, Bell's and Warbling Vireos, Yellow Warbler and last, but not least 

 common, the Cowbird. 1 have seen the Maryland Yellow-throat with a worm 

 in its bill and veiy much excited by my presence but was unable to find the 

 uest. I give here a few notes from my journal : 



1. May 22, 1895, Chickadee's nest, three highly incubated eggs, three feet 

 from the ground in a hole in a rotten stump. 



2. June 7, 1896, Orchard Oriole's nest, three fresh eggs, also one egg of 

 the Chipping Sparrow. Nest twenty feet up in a Lombardy poplar, lined with 

 hair like a Chipping Sparrow's. 



3. May 27, 1891. Field Sparrow, three eggs of the Sparrow and two of 

 the Cowbird. Nest on the ground under wild parsnip. 



4. June 16, 1891, Bell's Vireo, four eggs. Nest three feet from the ground 

 in a currant bush. 



5. August 19, 1892. Yellow-billed Cuckoo, two eggs. Nest ten feet up in 

 a maple sapphug covered with grape-vines. 



In another small maple sapphng, a friend of mine once found a Goldfinch's 

 uest containing spotted eggs. 



These are only a few of the many notes I made in these grounds. Surely 



