THE OOLOGIST 



159 



Nest No. 25. June 14. Black-headed 

 Grosbeak. This Grosbeak is a regu- 

 lar summer resident of the uottom 

 groves of the Judith Basin, but occurs 

 rather sparsely, as I never found 

 more than one or two nests each 

 season. West of the mountains, in 

 the Flathead region, it is one of the 

 common songsters of summer, but in 

 Fergus County it does not occur so as 

 to be listed as common. In the nest 

 under consideration, the female was 

 sitting on her eggs, a circumstance 

 worth mentioning for it is well-known 

 that the male sits more regularly 

 than the female. The nest was only 

 four feet from the ground, in an 

 oblique fork of a willow bush in the 

 edge of a willow thicket. As usual, 

 the structure was a loose framework 

 of coarse stems and rootlets, and the 

 eggs could be seen through the fabri- 

 cation from below. Here again we 

 find a peculiar instance of the varia- 

 tions in nest-construction among the 

 birds, for this avian builder leaves 

 plenty of ventilation in the bottom of 

 the nest, while most of the other 

 builders are careful to make the nest 

 almost air-tight in its flooring. This 

 nest held three eggs of the Cowbird, 

 all fresh. 



Nest No. 26. June 14. Yellow War- 

 blers were everywhere in evidence in 

 the willow groves, uttering their ring- 

 ing snatches of song. It is seldom 

 that they choose nesting sites in the 

 trees. This nest was in a rose stem, 

 two and a half feet from the ground, 

 at a place here four twigs forked 

 apart forming an admirable site. The 

 nest was made as usual of weed-bark 

 strippings, and lined with cotony ma- 

 terials and horsehair.- The comple- 

 ment was four eggs partially incubat- 

 ed. 



June 14. McCown Longspur. My 

 rambles today led me from the rose- 

 patches and willow thickets of the 



bottom lands out upon the high dry 

 bench lands adjoining the valley of 

 Big Spring Creek. It was too late for 

 the nesting of the Long-billed Cur- 

 lews, for the youngsters were leaving 

 the nests and lurking beside the grass 

 tufts. The little Curlews are as hard 

 to find as the nests, for their earliest 

 instincts prompt them to skulk and 

 hide when the elders give the alarm 

 by their harsh scolding overhead, bat 

 at length I found an infant Curlew 

 lurking at the base of a small lupine 

 bush. It was while hunting for this 

 baby Curlew that I chanced upon the 

 nest of McCown Longspur. The sit- 

 ting female was flushed from her nest 

 almost under my foot, and as usual 

 she mounted into the air by the char- 

 acteristic stair-like flight of this 

 species. Here also we see manifest- 

 ed a strange variation of action among 

 birds of near relationship. This 

 Longspur usually leaves its nest by 

 mounting directly into the air, while 

 the Chestnut-collared species flits 

 away from the nest in irregular hori- 

 zontal course. These little differences 

 of behavior frequently serve as a guide 

 to the identification of the bird, and 

 aid the field ornithologist in his 

 studies where sacrifice of the living 

 bird is not desirable or necessary. 

 This Longspur nest was on the high 

 dry prairie, at the base of a tuft of 

 lupine. It was made of soft dried 

 grasses rounded into a depression, 

 having no definite shape of its own 

 when removed from the containing 

 space. There were four eggs appar- 

 ently advanced in incubation. 



Nest No. 27. June 14. McCown 

 Longspur. This nest was near the 

 one last described. The female was 

 flushed from the nest, and the male 

 was singing on a nearby tuft of 

 grass. The site was at the base of a 

 tuft of tansy, and like most nests of 

 this species, the brim was on a level 



