104 



THE OOLOGIST 



Meadowlark — (Concluded). 



The above lines suggested them- 

 selves to the Editor while lying in the 

 hospital at Los Angeles in March of 

 1915. Every morning a Western 

 Meadowlark came and lit on a tele- 

 phone pole near the hospital and fac- 

 ing the rising sun, bubbled over with 

 melody for nearly an hour; when sud- 

 denly he would wheel and fly off to- 

 wards the Southwest. 



The regularity with which he did 

 this, the joy with which he seemed 

 posesssed and the unusual surround- 

 ings of a noisy city thoroughfare se- 

 lected by him, all impressed them- 

 selves upon the Editor's mind. To this 

 little bird we owe much for having 

 taken our mind off of physical suffer- 

 ing during our stay in that institution. 

 R. M. Barnes. 



Mourning Warbler. 



This handsome Warbler comes in 

 our section rather late. We never 

 found it breeding before the first part 

 of June. The head, neck and throat 

 are bluish-gray, changing to black on 

 the breast, rest of upper parts, wings 

 and tail, olive-green, belly yellow. The 

 eggs are white, speckled with reddish 

 lots near the larger end. As can be 

 seen by the photo. The nest is near 

 the ground, surrounded by ferns, etc. 

 We always found it in the Tonawanda 

 Swamp about fifty miles from Buffalo. 

 The Tonawanda Swamp is drained and 

 no more such rare birds like Carulean 

 Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Ovenbird 

 will be found there now. We at one 

 time could have purchased the section 

 of six hundred acres where a colony 

 of the Great Blue Heron nested and 

 1 at one time counted one hundred and 

 ten nests, some as high as one hun- 

 dred up in the high elms, for $6,000. 

 but could not raise the money for this 

 purpose. Now a corporation has 

 charge of it, — too bad. 



Ottomar Reinecke. 



A Jinx. 



Until the present nesting season the 

 owls have been my jinx. In the last 

 five years of more or less consistent 

 search I have never found an owl nest 

 of any variety, not even that of the 

 common Screech Owl. 



But the jinx is broken at last by a 

 lucky find on February 27, 1916. On 

 that date I went sixteen miles west of 

 Champaign to the heavy timber along 

 the Sagamon River. As I knew there 

 were Great Horned and Barred Owls 

 about, I was ready to climb every hol- 

 low tree in the wood in order to find a 

 nest. I soon found a promising-look- 

 ing, round hole in an Elm tree, twenty- 

 five feet up. Upon circling the tree 

 I saw a crack on the opposite side 

 from the hole and from it a long, soft 

 owl feather protruded. Making quick 

 work in strapping on the climbers I 

 started up the tree. I had not taken 

 more than six steps upward when an 

 owl flew out and settled on a nearby 

 limb for a few seconds to inspect me. 

 I instantly recognized it as a Barred 

 Owl. I climbed the remaining dist- 

 ance in record time, and in the cavity 

 saw my first set of Owl eggs and the 

 first set for 1916, consisting of five 

 clean Barred Owl eggs. Incubation 

 had just begun. Having no collecting 

 box along I was forced to carry them 

 in my sock cap upon my head on the 

 sixteen mile journey home. Various 

 other passengers on the interurban car 

 showed much curiosity about the pe- 

 culiar shape of my toque. 



Walter A. Goelitz. 

 Champaign, 111. 



Nesting of the Wilson Warbler 

 in New Jersey. 

 On June 16th, 1915, while making 

 observations along the trail to the 

 north of Mud Pond, Passaic County, 

 New Jersey, I located a nest of the 

 Wilson Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla) di- 



