Wilson, One Small Piece of Ground. 49 



this was a paradise for the small birds, I say was for the florist has at last had 

 the place cleaned np ; trees, bushes and vines cut down or trimmed and, since 

 the place has returned to civilization, no more shall 1 visit it, for with the 

 removal of the wild growth the most of the birds have also gone. 



DISCUSSIONS. 



MR. J. H. BROWN says he has visited the place of which Mr. Wilson 

 speaks and it was indeed "a paradise for birds." But at the present time the 

 place has been cleaned np and divided up and sold and now new buildings are 

 being erected on the grounds. 



Mrs. Triem speaks of a beatiful sight which she has visited ; a valley where 

 there are an immence number of birds, especially during the migrating season. 

 [Perhaps Mrs. Triem can, in the near future, give us an extended account of 

 her experiences and finds in this valley. Ed.] 



The fact that the White-crowned Sparrow is abundant near Davenport and 

 quite rare at Burlington was mentioned by Mr. Brown, but he could give us no 

 satisfactory solution of the question "why this was so?" He also thought that 

 possibly the Chipping Sparrow's egg found by Mr. Wilson in an Orchard 

 Oriole's nest, might have been a runt egg of the Oriole, as he has found a set 

 of four of the Oriole's eggs #hich were no larger than Chipping Sparrow's 

 eggs. And again, from the fact that the nest had a lining of hair, it may have 

 been first built by the Sparrow which laid one egg before the Oriole chanced 

 along and took possession ; the Oriole refitting the nest and laying her eggs 

 without molesting the Chipping Sparrow's egg, 



Mrs. Mary L. Rajtn asks if the Cowbird and the Cuckoo are the only birds 

 that lay in other birds' nests. 



Mr. Brown states that the Cuckoos do not lay in the nests of other birds. 

 Simply the two species of Cuckoos — the Yellow- billed and Black-billed — will 

 occasionally drop their eggs in the other's nest. Of this occasional freak, 

 Messrs. Law, Brown and Savage have made authentic observation. 



Mrs. M. A. Triem remarks that she has seen the House Wren sitting on a 

 set of English Sparrow's eggs, but she did not have the opportunity of revisit- 

 ing the place and making further investigation. Therefore, it may have been 

 that this little inquisitive Wren found the Sparrow's nest when the owner was 

 absent and thought she would try her skill at incubating Passer domesticus 

 eggs. [I dare say that the Wren disappeared quickly upon the Sparrow's 

 return. I do not attribute enough reasoning faculty to these impetuous 

 foreigners for them to become successful parasites. Ed.] 



Mr. J. Eugene Law spoke of the explanation of the "large sets," such as 

 seven and eight eggs of the Crow, fifteen and twenty eggs of the Bob- white, as 

 being the result of two females laying in the same nest. Probably this circum- 

 stance is indulged in by a much larger number of species and more often than 



