92 



THE OOLOGIST 



was highly provoking as I liad passed 

 witliin at least thirty feet of the spot 

 on May 30th when the eggs were with- 

 out doubt deposited. In this instance 

 I picked up the young and was great- 

 ly interested by the antics of the par- 

 ent who kept flying around me contin- 

 ually uttering the peculiar "chuck" 

 which can also be heard between the 

 notes while the bird is singing if the 

 listener be very near. She would 

 stretch out her wings upon the leaves 

 as if in great distress and tumble 

 about in plain sight but would not al- 

 low me to approach nearer than eight 

 or ten feet before fluttering off. Fi- 

 nally I walked away a short distance 

 and hid myself under a bush and 

 watched the young. The mother bird 

 soon appeared and the little ones ran 

 to her and were covered by her wings 

 much after the manner of the domes- 

 tic hen. 



To sum up I have found twenty- 

 three nests in all, two with young, one 

 with incubation far advanced and 

 tweney sets of perfect eggs which are 

 at present in my collection. In every 

 instance the eggs have been placed 

 in slight depressions on leaves in dry 

 open mixed woodland always on a 

 considerable elevation above the sur- 

 rounding country and never near 

 logs or rocks as some writers assert. 



In my opinion the birds though fair- 

 ly common are far from abundant. 

 Their song renders them conspicu- 

 ous and therefore they are considered 

 more common than they really are, 

 and does not the fact of two eggs only 

 being laid and these exposed to all 

 the added dangers to which ground 

 nesters are exposed suggest a possible 

 reason for their comparatively limited 

 numbers. It surely cannot be ascrib- 

 ed to the gunner or small boy as the 

 birds are not often shot and their eggs 

 are far from being a drug in the oolog- 

 ical market. H. W. Flint. 



Nighthawk Nests. 

 When I was a small boy, well do 1 

 remember how on any summer night 

 we could hear the booming of the 

 nighthawks, "spoo-oo-ook," as they 

 made a long swoop downward, then 

 returned again to the upward plane 

 of their flight. All through the long 

 warm evenings and often during 

 cloudy days they could be seen beating 

 the ipper air, in quest of insect food. 

 They gradually become scarce and 

 scarcer about here until there were 

 years about the '90s that I seldom ever 

 found one. At present, however, there 

 are quite a number again. I never suc- 

 ceeded in finding their nest about 

 here, but my father and brothers found 

 several. While in Central Rock coun- 

 ty, a few years ago, I could on any 

 night, when it was warm, all through 

 the nesting season, see dozens of them 

 beating back and forth over the Rock 

 River, during the late afternoon and 

 evening hours. The eggs are two in 

 number, layed on the bare earth, 

 usually in a cultivated field, creamy 

 white ground and heavily marbled with 

 grayish brown. 



Geo. W. H. vos Burgh. 



Juncos in Weld County, Colorado. 



The Juncos at Windsor, in Weld 

 County, Colorado, fifteen miles from 

 the foothills, are not resident. They 

 come in the fall, and if the winter is 

 favorable, some remain till they leave 

 for their summer home. The most 

 common, and the first to arrive in Oc- 

 tober, are pink-sided Juncos. They 

 are said to summer and nest in the 

 Rocky Mountain regions of Idaho and 

 Montana. Following them are the Shu- 

 feldt Juncos; these are said to nest 

 further north in the mountain regions 

 of British Columbia and Alberta, and 

 westward to Oregon. Somewhat less 

 common among them are the white- 

 winged Juncos. These are larger and 



