THE OOLOGIST. 



83 



Interesting Notes from Sullivan Co. 

 N. Y. 



Editor Oologisi : 



As I have spent most of the past few sum- 

 mers in New York, I send you a few notes 

 from SuUivan county, N. Y.. 



The first thing which struck me as pe- 

 culiar was in the nesting of the House 

 Wren. I found them much given to using 

 the nests of other birds. For instance, I 

 found a large number of cases where an old 

 Barn Swallow's was taken possession of by 

 them, the nest filled nearly full of coarse 

 sticks and the inside lined with soft, downy 

 feathers. 



Another case was as follows : Two boys 

 made a small bird-house of a tin can and 

 fastened it in a tree close to the house. In 

 a short time a pair of blue-birds had built 

 a nest therein and had laid four eggs. At 

 this juncture, however, a pair of wrens ap- 

 peared and in the absence of the blue birds, 

 invaded the nest, ejected the eggs by thurst- 

 ing their bills into them and tossing them 

 from the nest, and. coming off victors in 

 repeated battles with the blue-birds, filled 

 up the nest with sticks and there made 

 their nest. The wrens, which were very 

 abundant, had also a bad reputation as nest 

 robbers, and I myself kncAv of their throw- 

 ing ths eggs from nests of the Song Spar- 

 row and Grass Finch, I took sets of wrens 

 as late as August 14, this summer. 



On July 21, 1886, I found a nest of the 

 Chimney Swift made in the usual manner, 

 but glued to the wall on the inside of a 

 wagon house, about fifteen feet from the 

 floor and directly over a large window 

 which was always open and through which 

 the parent birds had access to the nest. 

 When I found it, it contained two young 

 birds about four days old, — they left the 

 nest by July 30. Whenever any one ap- 

 proached the nest, which was in the upper 

 story of the wagon house, the young birds 

 made a suprisingly loud, harsh, grating 

 noise ; moreover they were constantly fall- 

 ing down and climbing up the side again 

 by sticking their sharp claws into the 

 wood. 



On June 3, 1885, 1 found a Song Spar- 

 row's nest placed in the top of an alder 

 bush about five and one half feet from the 

 ground. It contained young. 



At the end of the gable roof of the house 

 where I was stopping, on a sort of shelf, 

 projecting from one of the eves, were three 

 " Siamese" Robin's nests, placed in a row, 

 sides touching and interwoven with each 

 other; and the remarkable thing^is that for 

 four or five years — as I was assured on un- 

 disputable authority — three pairs of Robins 

 had regularly returned in the spring, taken 

 possession of the nests and raised their 

 broods in harmony. It is altogether proba- 

 ble that the same pairs returned each year. 

 Have any of the Oologist. readers known 

 of a similar instance? Several other peculiar- 

 ities which I noted'I will reserve for another 

 time. 



W. J. V. OSTEKHOUT. 



Providence, R. I. 



To a Golden-crested Kinglet. 



ON NOVEMBEK 3d, 1886. 



Beautiful bird of the ever green wilderness; 

 Oft have I wandered where might be thy 



nesting-place, 

 Is it in the cedar or June's airy shade? 

 Or in the top of the spruce, is thy nursery 



made? 

 Is it in the north, by the Hudson Bay shore? 

 Or on Labrador's coast, where the wild bil- 

 low's roar? 

 Or the ever green hills, whence the Ottawa 



comes, 

 Where the jay and the raven have their 



winter homes? 

 O tell me satrapa that I too .may tell, 

 The place where in summer ye chose for to 



dwell. 

 For I know that in autumn, ye chose here 



to come; 

 And in our deep wildwoods make your 



winter home; 

 And is active and cheery when snow closeth 



the ground. 

 And the chill blasts of winter are drifting 



around ; 



