18 



THE OOLOGISl 



Spring, that brings our birds back from 

 their winter haunts, and I had not gone 

 far before I saw the first Robin of the 

 year. 



Soon after, I entered a block of woods 

 and had not been there long when I 

 was greeted by a song, loud, clear, and 

 musical, though of short duration. 

 The song was new to me. 



I hastened to locate the singer 'and 

 was surprised to find it a Browm 

 Creeper, Pausing in its upward course 

 for an instant it lifted its head and 

 uttered the song, then continued its 

 search for food at once. The song was 

 uttered at frequent intervals, always 

 with but momentary cessation of labor 

 as though the bird was too busy to spare 

 much time even for song. 



I was not aware the bird nested in 

 this locality until I found an empty nest 

 in June, 1892. Since that time I have 

 found and examined fully a score of 

 nests only one of which contained eggs, 

 most of them being old nests. The nests 

 are all very similar in construction and 

 location, and are built at heights vary- 

 ing from three to fifteen feet from the 

 ground. 



A mixed growth of old trees among 

 which are iiry mast-like stubs on which 

 the bark is loosened and partly gone is 

 their favorite nesting site. The stub of 

 a balsam fir is almost invariably chosen, 

 though stubs of other trees may be 

 more numerous. Just why ihis k'nd of 

 stub is preferred is difficult to deter- 

 mine, but I think it may be in conse- 

 quence of the inner fibers of fir bark 

 being quite "stringy," thus making ihe 

 attachment of the nest less difficult. 

 To the inside of the loosened scale of 

 bark the nest is attached, invariably 

 quite independent of the trunk for sup- 

 port, though if the space is narrow the 

 nest may rest against the trunk. The 

 nest is built in the form of a crescent, 

 both ends elevated and the middle de- 

 pressed. The crescent form is pre- 

 served throughout the structure, a sec- 



tion from the middle of the nest ex- 

 hibiting that form. It is quite large 

 and bulky. A nest before me measures 

 from the depressed center to the bot- 

 tom, six inches; from the horns of the 

 crescent to the bottom, nine and one- 

 half inches; width, six inches; depth at 

 top (distance between bark and trunk) 

 two inches, with a gradual expansion 

 toward the bottom. 



Composed of fine shreds of bark, soft 

 ■punky, decayed wood, fine twigs, many 

 scales of rough bark ranging from the 

 size of a dime to a quarter, all held to- 

 gether and attached to the bark with 

 insect webs and cocoons. Very many of 

 the latter are used and to such good pur- 

 pose, that, though the nest looks very 

 flimsy, it is really attached quite firmly 

 to the bark. The lining on which the 

 eggs are laid is soft, rotten wood, fine 

 fibrous bark and cocoons. Some nests 

 have feathers, nair and plant-down used 

 in their construction. A nest contain- 

 ing five fresh eggs was found June 26th. 

 This was probably a second set, as I 

 found another nest not far from it that 

 contained the broken shells of some 

 eggs which I concluded was the first 

 set, by some means destroyed. I left 

 it, thinking the set incomplete, but 

 found the bird .setting on the five eggs 

 when I returned the next day. She sat 

 closely. I rapped on the stub without 

 effect, then with a small stick struck 

 the scale of bark over the nest as hard 

 as I dared, but she refused to leave un- 

 til I pulled the bark aside. 



The eggs when emptied of their con- 

 tents are pure white, with reddish dots 

 moitly about the larger end where they 

 tend to form a wreath, leaving the ex- 

 treme end unspotted. They resemble 

 eggs of the Chickadee but are smaller, 

 measuring about .55 x .44. 



If the ne4t is disturbed before eggs 

 are laid I think the birds usually aban- 

 don it, as I have found other nests ap- 

 parently nearly ready for eggs, but 

 though I was careful not to disturb 



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