Field Notes 39 



From that time on until October 10th, when the last record 

 was made, these birds were quite scarce, one or two at a time 

 being seen about every third day. 



There is so much resemblance between the fall birds of the 

 Bay-breasted and Black-poll Warblers and they are both so numer- 

 ous that a comparison of migration dates is interesting. 



Practically all of these birds seen by the writer vip to Septem- 

 ber 6th were Bay-breasts. Then for about two weeks the two spe- 

 cies were about equally well represented. 



After September 20th the Bay-breasts were scarce, while the 

 Black-polls were numerous. The last Bay-breast was seen October 

 10th; the last Blackpoll October 19th, though in some years the 

 Blackpolls stay about ten days later than that. 



It is therefore probable that the bulk of the Bay-breasts are 

 gone before the main body of Black-polls appear. 



John P. Young. 



Youngstown, Ohio. 



WAS THIS BIRD FIGHTING VERMIN? 



Some time ago, when out for a stroll, I came across an Indigo 

 Bunting going through maneuvers new to me. 



I stopped and watched the bird closely. He was on a small 

 mound, bare of vegetation, and perhaps thirty or forty feet from 

 me. He would pick up , a mouthful of dirt, stand erect, drop his 

 mouthful on his body, loosen up his feathers and shake himself. 

 This operation was rapidly repeated for a minute or so. He then 

 flew away. 



I examined the mound and found it to be an ant-hill. The ma- 

 terial was rather fine and compact, and a few small ants were 

 racing across it. 



The thought struck me that perhaps the bird was troubled with 

 vermin, as birds often are, and that he was trying to put ants in 

 among his feathers to devour them. I never had heard of any- 

 thing of the kind, though I had seen birds and fowls wallow in 

 the dust to eradicate vermin, as I supposed. 



My curiosity was aroused. I wrote to the Pennsylvania State 

 Zoologist about it, but gave no intimation as to what I had mis- 

 trusted. In a few days a reply came saying he had no solution 

 of the problem; that he had sent my letter to some authority in 

 Philadelphia or Washington, and that the answer gave no light. 



Lately, in perusing a copy of Mumford's " Birds and Nature," 

 I saw an article on " The Wild Turkey," by John James Audubon. 

 The article is not dated, but it is doubtless from the pen of the 

 great ornithologist, who died in 1851. 



