THE OOLOGIST 



19 



stand a chance of having his permit 

 revoked. Well, the hypodermic meth- 

 od is par excellent but requires 

 patience. Still the beautifully small 

 hole will repay for the care and time. 

 J. W. Daniels, Jr. 



Bird Nesting Noted From Yates, 

 County, N. Y. 



The interval of time between the 

 date arrival of birds and the very date 

 of beginning nest construction, and 

 date when first egg was deposited, 

 also the number of days required to 

 complete nests, and lay full sets of 

 eggs is an interesting phase of bird 

 nesting study. 



An old date book of mine has taken 

 new interest since I began to search 

 its well filled pages and tabulated 

 these data. 



Some birds begin nest construction 

 in a remarkably short time after ar- 

 rival, and I find recorded many in- 

 stances of the first beginning of nests, 

 first eggs laid and time required to 

 build nests and deposit the usual com- 

 plement of eggs. 



The following data or observations 

 illustrated a few instances concerning 

 this subject — of birds observed almost 

 daily during the nesting time. 



Baltimore Oriole. 



The Baltimore Oriole arrives as 

 early as April 20th, the usual time be- 

 ing May 1-5. In 1895 they arrived on 

 May 3 and on May 15 I found a nest 

 containing fresh eggs. Figuring back- 

 wards we find the first eggs were 

 probably laid on May 11th. Just eight 

 days after the arrival of the Oriole, 

 and assuming that it required five 

 days to sew and lace its intricate 

 pouch of a nest, we are led to believe 

 the nest was begun three days after 

 date arrival of the birds. In 1899 they 

 came on April 28th and on May 5 I ob- 

 served a female tearing shreds of 



weed bark for the first strands of her 

 nest, seven days after arrival. In 

 1901 they arrived on May 5 and on 

 May 10 a pair commenced a nest in 

 my yard. 



Indigo Bunting. 



I have recorded the Indigo Bunting 

 as early as May 2nd but this however 

 only once in 25 years, the normal date 

 being May 10th. There were several 

 years however the Indigo did not ap- 

 pear until May 10-15. In 1896 they 

 arrived here and also in Geneva (24 

 miles away) on May 17th and one 

 pair at least did not waste any time, 

 for I found on May 27th a nest with 4 

 fresh eggs. The first egg must havG 

 been deposited on May 23rd, just •> 

 days after the species arrived. Her;^ 

 is an instance of nest building in 48 

 hours after the arrival for we may 

 well admit that it requires four day,^ 

 for the Indigo bird to finish a nest. 



Red Eyed Vireo. 



This Vireo is a June nesting bird, 

 usually the earliest nest construction 

 begins during the last week of May. T 

 have but one remarkable record of 

 extremely early nesting. This oc- 

 curred in 1905 when the Red Eyed 

 Vireo arrived about as usual on May 

 4 and on May 14 I found a newly 

 finished nest. This same year another 

 nest was reported to me as containing 

 one egg on May 13. 



Louisiana Water Thrush. 



This interesting species, the gay 

 "Othellos" of the finger lakes gullies 

 arrive here on the average close to 

 April 15, the earliest date being April 

 10. However, the arrival date of the 

 Louisiana Water Thrush for 1902 was 

 April 19th and I found a nest on Mav 

 4th containing 6 fresh eggs. We may 

 figure that the first egg was deposited 

 on April 28 only three or four days 



