82 



THE OOLOGIST 



Black Skimmer. Typical Nest Showing Full Clutch and all 

 Eggs Perfectly Marked. Photo by Stanley Clisby Arthur. 



slightly toward me, two eggs could be 

 seen, one of which was slightly larger 

 than the other. A few days later on 

 visiting the nest there were only two 

 eggs and the birds were still about 

 the orchard, but I did not notice the 

 female fly off the nest as on the 

 occasion of the first climb. A few 

 days before this the male bird was 

 seen and he was of the greenish plu- 

 mage, much resembling the female. 

 No mature males were seen about the 

 place since early in May so this cer- 

 tainly must have been the mate of the 

 bird who built the nest. 



It was not my intention to collect 

 this set but as there were only two 

 eggs at my last visit, I again climbed 

 to the nest expecting to find several 

 eggs, but to my surprise found no 

 eggs at all. The nest was in good coq- 

 dition but what happened to the eggs 

 was a mystery to me. About this 

 time (unfortunately I did not record 



the date). I found another nest, to all 

 appearances a Orchard Oriole's nest, 

 but in another tree. I am sure it had 

 been there only a few days as I kept 

 a watch out for nests nearly every 

 day, and as it was not high up it was 

 readily observed. This same pair of 

 Orioles, — the immature male and his 

 mate were yet frequenting the or- 

 chard and as this was the only paid 

 about the place they evidently built 

 this second nest which was far out on 

 a limb out of my reach. But it surely 

 was an Orchard Oriole nest being 

 made of frest green grass. As to the 

 contents of it, I could only guess, but 

 if my surmise was correct, there never 

 were any eggs in it, for about this 

 time the Orioles deserted the orchard. 

 The first nest is now in my collection 

 and is a beautiful piece of bird archi- 

 tecture worthy of preservation. 



Ben J. Blincoe, 

 Bardstown, Ky. 



