72 



THE OOLOGIST 



dominating the rest wlien it came to 

 begging for food 



A Hairy Woodpecker's nest wa^ 

 found in a dead stub about fifty feet 

 from the ground. "Sut" shinned up 

 in the hope of collecting a nice set of 

 eggs, but was mightily disappointed 

 when he heard the buzzing of the 

 ycung birds when he was within a 

 few feet of the nest. A Cardinal's 

 nest with three eggs was found in a. 

 black raspberry. It was remarkably 

 well hidden, and was discovered only 

 by luck. Later the set was colletced. 

 A Chickadee's nest with seven per- 

 fectly fresh eggs was found in a nat- 

 ural cavity in a dead stump about six 

 feet from the ground. The cavity had 

 been enlarged by the birds and then 

 lined with rabbit fur, and a more 

 beautiful and delicate nest could hard- 

 ly be imagined. A Wood-thrush had 

 begun a nest in a Virginia creeper 

 which ran up the side of a huge elm. 

 Evidently it had become dissatisfied 

 with it for it started another about two 

 feet below it. The second nesi had 

 two eggs in it. 



At about eight o'clock that evening 

 while going to the spring for a drink, 

 I saw a Whip-poor-will hunting. It 

 was perched lengthwise on a branch 

 about fifteen feet from the ground, 

 and regularly, about every thirty sec- 

 onds it would very silently flutter up 

 in the air and down again to the same 

 perch. UndoulDtedly, the night moths 

 knew to their sorrow just exactly 

 what it was doing. We had not been 

 able to make skins of all the birds 

 that we had secured because it got 

 dark rather early, and so a Golden- 

 winged Warbler and a Wilson's Thrush 

 were put on a little ledge in the cave 

 to keep until morning. Never again! 

 During that night, something, prob- 

 ably a shrew of some kind dragged 

 them into a hole in the rocks and all 

 we found were a few feathers and 

 bones. The shrew can hardly be 



blamed, however, for when wrapped m 

 a: strip of bacon and toasted for a few 

 minutes over a smoky fire, we found 

 Wocd Thrush and Cuckoo very savory. 

 The next day it poured Of course 

 that did net keep us under cover, but 

 it certainly did the birds. It would 

 have been foolish to try to dry ou:' 

 clothes because they were soaked, so 

 we srxUiglcd dov/n tcgether under the 

 blankets and the next morning we 

 were nearly if not quite dry. There 

 surely must be some special provi- 

 dence which protects an ornithologist, 

 for, needless to say, we suffered ab- 

 solutely no ill affects from our wel- 

 ting. 



A straggling flock of about twent:' 

 large birds which were provisionally 

 identifled as Turkey Buzzards was 

 seen, but they were flying so high, 

 that absolute identification was impos- 

 sible. It was rather surprising that in 

 the three days we saw neither a Blue- 

 bird, White-breasted Nuthatch, or a 

 Night Hawk. It is to be supposed 

 that they were busy incubating, al- 

 though in the case of the Bluebirds, 

 one would think that they would be 

 leading their first brood around at 

 that time. 



Following is the complete list of 

 species seen from six p. m.. May 12th, 

 until two p. m. May 15th. Specimens 

 of those species starred with an aster- 

 isk were collected. 



Spotted Sandpiper, Killdeer, Bob- 

 white, Ruffed Grouse, Mourning Dove, 

 Turkey Buzzard (?), Red-tailed Hawk, 

 Sparrow Hawk, Screech Owl, Great 

 Horned Owl, *Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 

 *Black-billed Cuckoo, Kingfisher, 

 Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Wood- 

 pecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 

 Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-bellied 

 Woodpecker, Flicker, Whip-poor-will, 

 Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hum- 

 mingbird, Kingbird, Crested Fly- 

 catcher, Phoebe, Wood Pewee, Acadian 

 Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Blue Jay, 



