THE YOUNG OOLOGIST. 



5; 



Correspondence. 



tiik summer teltiow-bird and cow- 

 rird again. 

 From E. S. B., Rock Island, III.— 

 Ill regard to the habit coramon to some 

 of our birds of ridding themselves of the 

 Cow-birds' egg left in their nests, by cover- 

 ing the eggs and enlarging their nest, C. 

 W. B. states, that according to Baird, it is 

 the invariable custom of the Summer Yel- 

 low-bird. Now either C. W. B. or Prof. 

 Baird must be mistaken, for in this locality, 

 while two-story nests of the Summer Yel- 

 low-bird are of frequent occurrence, nests 

 containing young Cow-buntings, or incub- 

 ated eggs, are not uncommon. I recently 

 found a vireo's nest of unusual heigh th, in 

 which, on examination, were found two 

 Cow-bird's eggs securely imbedded. The 

 nest had bien deserted, probably upon the 

 Cow-bird again revisiting it. I have often 

 found nests containing as many as three 

 Cow bird eggs, and once or twice have 

 found four in nests of the Wood Thrush, 

 which rarely escape the Cow-bird here. 



DAKOTA JOTTINGS. 



Redfield, Dak. — I send a few notes 

 from observations here during the past five 

 weeks, which may be of interest. I have 

 found nests of Marsh Black-bird, Bank 

 SAvallow, Summer Yellow-bird, Yellow- 

 billed Cuckoo, Crow Black-bird, Wilson's 

 Thrush (6), King-bird, Sandpiper (?) Least 

 Flycatcher, Turtle Dove, Brown Thrush 

 and others. Whip-poor-wills breed here. 

 I think Night-hawks, Plovers and Meadow 

 Larks abound. The Lark often sings 

 from the tops of houses in this town of 

 800 people. I think the Great Crested 

 Fly-catcher is here. Is this it ? A bird 

 associating with King-birds, larger than 

 them, back ashy gray , head, neck and throat 

 slaty blue, belly sulpher yellow, wings 

 tiffed with light brown ? They flutter 

 about, making a great and continuous 

 racket when I approach a King-birds nest. 

 I have found nests, which seemed certainly 

 to belong to them, for when I took the 

 nest away the pair came up and mouned 

 piteously, but the eggs don't at all answer 

 descriptions, but more like Wood-pewee's. 

 Cas-birds and Cow-birds breed. Horned 

 Larks are here in small numbers. I have 

 found no nests. Maryland Yellow Throats 

 breed here. I found in one Wilson's 

 Thrush's nest two Cow-bird's eggs, one of 

 which was pushed down out of sight in 

 the middle of the nest. 



One of your correspondents asks if 5 

 eggs is not an unusually large set of Brown 

 Thrush's eggs. In Iowa, where that 



thrush is one of the commonest road-side 

 breeders, 5 eggs is the usual set. A nest 

 of the Magnolia Warbler has been found 

 in Grinnell, Iowa, this season. 



Yours truly, S. L. W. 

 The bird which you thought might pos- 

 sibly be the Great Crested Flj^catcher, is 

 the Western Kingbird. Ed. 



AMERICAN redstart. 



While collecting on June 14th, 1884, I 

 found twenty-three (23) nests of the Amer- 

 ican Kedstart within one hundred yards of 

 each other. Is not this rather an uncom- 

 mon occuiTence to find them breeding in 

 such large numbers ? 



R. C. C, Frfedonia, K. Y, 



A SUMMERS YELLOW BIRD REARING A 

 COWBIRD. 



In the July number of The Young 

 Oologist, I saw an account, sttiting that 

 the Summer yellow Bird never hatches the 

 eggs of the Cow bird, deposited in its nest 

 by the same. I doubt this ; Some time 

 ago I saw a yellow bird feeding a Cow 

 bird about half grown, which she had 

 evidently hatched. Has anyone else ob- 

 served the same occurance ? Is the 

 yellow throated Greenlet another name for 

 the yellow throated Vireo ? W. M. P. 

 Catasauqua, Pa. 



Greenlets and Vireos are the same. — Ed. 



LARK hunting. 



I found a nest of five eggs the other day 

 of a light bluish-green color, resembling 

 the blue birds egg in size and shape. The 

 male bird somewhat resembles the Bobo- 

 link, and sings very much the same, 

 but has white shoulders instead of yellow. 

 Can you name it please? C. T. T. 



Altoona, Dak. 



The nest, eggs, and bird which you have 

 described is doubtless the Lark Bunting. 



BLACK BILLED CUCKOO. 



I write you to enquire about an egg 

 which I found in an apple tree about six 

 feet from the ground. It is about the 

 size of a mourning dove, and about that 

 shape and is of a pure greenish color all 

 over. The nest resembles a mourning 

 dove's as but[f ew sticks and grass roots, etc. 

 make up the nest. The bird is a little 

 smaller than the Thrush, long tail, is of a 

 grayish drab color, and has fiery red eyes, 

 quite long bill. What do you think it is? 

 Resp. A. B. W 



Clinton, Wis. 



Your egg is that of the Black-billed 

 Cuckoo. 



