102 



THE OOLOGIST 3^ ((fi) , \^T7 



stripe across the left side. He was 

 otherwise colored like the rest of his 

 tribe. Has such bird been here be- 

 fore, and if so, where? I trust that 

 the readers of the Oologist will report 

 if they see him. I should like to know 

 where he goes. His markings are such 

 that he will be easily recognized when 

 seen, and if seen something of the 

 travels of the catbird can be made a 

 record . 



Catbirds have been very numerous 

 here during the migration period this 

 season. On May 8, Miss Shuler and I 

 observed about twenty on the same 

 branch and not far from where the 

 white winged was seen . On several 

 occasions I have seen seven or eight 

 in a small thicket not far from the 

 University. However, they are all 

 gone now, or at least I have not seen 

 any since the 24th of May. 



The migration seemed to be at its 

 height about the middle of May. On 

 May 13, we observed 54 species, and 

 again on May 15, 48 species were 

 seen. Many of these were resident 

 species, but many were migrating and 

 will be seen here no more until fall, 

 perhaps not then. 



W. H. Warren, 

 Austin, Texas. 



The Sycamore Warbler 



In the early eighties, when the 

 writer was starting his first serious 

 oological collection, the Sycamore 

 Warbler (Dendroica dominica albilora) 

 was a fairly common summer resident 

 of Eastern Texas, and on favorable 

 days in May its clear ventrilequial 

 song could be heard in almost any 

 grove of damp woods, the tall gums 

 and sycamores of creek bottoms being 



its favorite haunts. 



But like many of our other birds, 

 this handsome warbler has passed 

 with the years, and is now rather rare 

 in this section This probably due in 



most part to the fact that many of the 

 creek bottoms have been cleared and 

 are now under the plow; in many sec- 

 tions where the giant sweet gums 

 once towered high in the air and the 

 snow white trunks of sycamores 

 glistened in the sunlight which found 

 its way through rifts in the dense foli- 

 age, cotton and corn now sways in the 

 gentle southern breezes. 



The nest of the Sycamore Warbler 

 is usually composed of thin bark strips 

 and fine rootlets, lined with hair, situ- 

 ated most often on horizontal limbs 

 of sweet gums, cottonwoods and syca- 

 mores, rarely in pendant bunches of 

 moss, often at quite a height from the 

 ground. The eggs are usually four in 

 number and are very handsome. 



The writer has spent many days, al- 

 most every season, searching for nests 

 of this species, with a net result of 

 less than a dozen nests and eggs col- 

 lected in over twenty-five years. Last 

 season, on May 5th, we had the good 

 fortune to take an unusually hand- 

 some set of five, the eggs being very 

 boldly marked with brown and laven- 

 der, especially on the larger ends, 

 average measurements 71 x 52. The 

 nest situated on a large horizontal 

 limb of a giant sweet gum, fully 70 

 feet from the ground and was reached 

 only after a good deal of dangerous 

 manuevering. The birds built a sec- 

 ond nest in an almost exactly similar 

 situation in another large gum, about 

 300 feet from the first site This nest 

 was not disturbed, and about twenty 

 days later the parent birds were ob- 

 served feeding a promising pair of 

 youngsters perched on the low limb of 

 a small gum near the last nesting site. 

 The young received food with a good 

 deal of noise, and it was due to this 

 fact that they were located. 



E. F. Pope. 



