THE OOLOGIST 



83 



Black Skimmer. Incomplete Nest with One Egg Showing 

 Albanistic Tendencies. The Absolutely Black Spots of the 

 Typical Eggs, all that Shows. Photo by Stanley Clisby Arthur 



PHOEBE AND KINGBIRD 



In a recent number of The Oologist, 



some interesting notes by a Kansas 



observer reads as follows: "The 



Phoebe is a common bird in this lo- 

 cality. They arrive about the time of 

 the Kingbird, or the last of March or 

 the first of April." In this locality 

 (Central Kentucky), there is usually 

 more than a months difference be- 

 tween the arrivals of these two birds. 

 Occasionally a Phoebe winters here, 

 for I once saw one on the 7th day of 

 February and C. W. Beckham has ob- 

 served them in all the winter months. 

 But usually I see no Phoebes until 

 early March and they are here in full 

 numbers by the 15th or 20th of the 

 month. As to the Kingbird, I have 

 never seen it earlier than April 22nd, 



but Beckham states that it arrives 

 April 20th. 



I have seen Kingbirds in flocks of 

 six or eight individuals as late as May 

 2nd, which is evidence that the migra- 

 tion of this species is still on. It will 

 be seen from the above notes that 

 there is a big dierence between the 

 arrival of the Phoebe and Kingbird in 

 Kansas and Kentucky; that is, if my 

 notes and the Kansas observer's notes 

 are both correct. Kansas and Ken- 

 tucky are both in about the same lat- 

 itude, but perhaps the Kingbird ar- 

 rives earlier in the West. 



Let some of your observers, both 

 eastern and western, give us your 

 notes on the time of arrival of these 

 birds. 



Ben J. Blincoe. 

 Bardstown, Ky. 



