THE OOLOQI8T 



87 



Believe, despite anything I liave pre- 

 viously read or observed about the Red 

 Bird, that the Kentucky Cardinal pos- 

 sesses the most remarkable vocabu- 

 lary, and is the sweetest of all Ken- 

 tucky songsters. They nest in the city 

 of Louisville and are not adverse to 

 selecting brush in close proximity to 

 dwellings. 



The Towhee of Kentucky is very 

 charming. His song contains an extra 

 note which I have never recognized 

 among his Illinois or Indiana kinsmen. 

 One day while examining a thicl: 

 clump of oak sprouts surrounding i\ 

 stump three feet above the moss 

 covered ground, I surprised a Ciiee- 

 wink from a large, beautiful nesi of 

 three eggs. Next day, I found anotliei; 

 Cheewink's nest five feet up in a 

 bush, and a few days later, discovered 

 two more built off the ground. One at 

 an elevation of four feet and the other 

 eighteen. Imagine my surprise when 

 a Towhee fluttered away from a nest 

 in the sapling Eighteen feet up ii 

 looked like a Crackle's nest, as I stood 

 under it. 



Chat experience was probably more 

 interesting than my study of any one 

 species. They are expert ventrilo- 

 quists and imitators, and would start 

 calling among the brush to my right, 

 and at a distance of say 60 feet. With- 

 in this radius, they would complete a 

 circle about 125 feet in diameter and 

 still remain "invisible." Once or twice 

 he wa's seen in long flight. Concealing 

 myself and making peculiar noises, 

 their curiosity was aroused and I could 

 entice them to within 20 feet and se- 

 cure good views. Several times I had 

 the pleasure of studying the female up- 

 on the nest. She usually selected a very 

 thick bunch of brush, but one that was 

 exposed so that it was not necessary 

 to penetrate the jungle in order to get 

 a close view of her domicile. I ex- 

 amined eight Chats' nests before see- 

 ing a clutch of four eggs. I had found 



new nests, revisited some of them 

 when they contained from one to 

 three eggs, and on every occasion a 

 visited nest of the Chat was aban- 

 doned, whether the nest did or did not 

 contain eggs. In several instances, oc- 

 cupied nests were not only deserted, 

 but the eggs removed. The nest did 

 not bear any dishevelled appearance, 

 and there was no evidence of any egg 

 shells on the ground. Never before in 

 my experience with bird life has the 

 nest of any species met with such fate, 

 exactly eight consecutive times. Later, 

 I found one new nest containing a 

 black snake. Perhaps these reptiles 

 were doing the robbing. 



It was a pleasant experience to And 

 a nest of the Kentucky Warbler. I 

 noticed the male scolding They breed 

 in damp rather thick woods, but suffi- 

 ciently open to permit the sun's rays 

 to penetrate a few hours each day. 

 Detected the female as she stepped to 

 the rim of the nest, and ran away 

 among the ferns and foliage. I visited 

 her next day and she made no effort 

 to evade me, but simply hopped from 

 her nest and started to chirp. The 

 third time I did not see her. Some 

 Warblers are very sensitive about hav- 

 ing the nest or eggs approached. Sev- 

 eral days later, one rainy evening, I 

 approached the spot without the dead 

 leaves cracking under my feet, and 

 had the pleasure of watching her upon 

 the nest for several minutes. She final- 

 ly vacated, but was getting very tame, 

 and the male would soon join her, but 

 showed no opposition to my presence. 



Making my way slowly over fallen 

 logs in a cathedral-like woods where 

 vegetation stood ten inches high, I 

 stepped on the edge of a knob of 

 leaves from which a Kentucky Warb- 

 ler flew reluctantly. The nest well 

 built, was anchored to a' fallen branch. 

 One newly hatched young and three 

 eggs were visible. The pigment was 

 entirely on the large end and would 

 have made as handsome a clutch of 



