6 THE NIDOLOGIST 
FIG. I. 
Intelligence of Ouzels. 
HE TWO handsome photographs of 
Water Ouzel’s nests, here presented, 
have a peculiar interest attached to 
them. The nests, it will be seen, are quite 
different, but the /ocation is identical. The 
photographs were taken by Mr. H. W. 
Nash, of Pueblo, Colorado, near which 
point the nests were found. 
Figure 1 is the ’95 nest, and that pic- 
tured in figure 2 isa 96 nest. Being, as 
is clearly shown, in exactly the same spot 
as the nest of the previous year, the 
assumption is fully warranted that it was 
built by the same pair of birds. It is on 
the identical ledge of rock, and there it will 
be observed, are the same ferns and vegeta- 
tion of ’95—only grown a Uittle longer! 
We have in Figure 2, (the ’96 home of 
the Ouzels) a remarkable nest of this 
species. Notice the numerous pine needles 
woven in about the entrance, giving it 
such an odd appearane>. 
Why this wide departure from the con- 
ventional, mossy nest-structure of the 
Ouzel? Mr. Nash suggests that the pine 
needles were used to effect concealment, 
the birds having been so often disturbed. 
And with the two photographs to back the 
theory it is not at all improbable, and fur- 
nishes a most striking instance of the in- 
telligence of birds. H. R. Tayror. 
WATER OUZEL’s NEST (1895) 
The Twilight Song of the TMeadowlark. 
S the winter’s snow banks gradually 
melt before the sly peeps of the ap- 
proaching summer’ssun, and March’s 
chilly blasts scatter the remains of the cold 
season, our songsters begin to return from 
the warmer climes. 
Among the first to greet us in our rambles 
is Sturnella magna. This beautiful song- 
ster. who is generally about the ninth or 
tenth migrant returning to its summer 
home, usually arrives between the 6th and 
26th of March. 
On a clear but damp morning at this time 
of year, as the observer starts on a tour in 
the woods, a loud, liquid ‘‘Te, te—ou, we 
—ee,’’ coming from a neighboring field, 
apprises him of the fact that the Meadow- 
lark has returned. 
Soon after its arrival it begins an inter- 
esting twilight performance which can be 
heard throughout the early part of the 
breeding season. 
In 1895, the writer chancing to be in 
close proximity to a field, observed a bird 
perched ina treetop. Its position and ac- 
tions proclaimed it a Meadowlark at the 
first glance. As I approached it took wing 
and flewswifty upward, its wings vibrating 
rapidly as the bird ascended spirally into 
the air, uttering a hushed but penetrating 
chattering noise, resembling somewhat the 
