12 



THE OOLOGIST 



friend, C. E. Van Alstine of Burning 

 Springs, W. Va., described it: "It is 

 white, not a pure white, but of a 

 steel white, this color is more pro- 

 nounced on the neck, its legs and 

 feet, below the feathers are black, its 

 bill is of a pinkish color except the 

 tip which is black." 



The bird appears hearty and strong 

 and is reported eating most every- 

 thing and finally escaped from the 

 first captor and a short time after- 

 wards fell into the hands of a second 

 farmer who now has it. It is to be 

 hoped that it will ultimately find its 

 way into one of the Zoological Gar- 

 dens either at Washington, Philadel- 

 phia, New York or Pittsburgh. 



Editor. 



Let me celebrate my return to civil 

 life by contributing the following notes 

 to The Oologist: 



Birds and Wasps 



A common bird, familiar to all who 

 have spent any time in tropical Amer- 

 ica, is the Grey Tody Flycatcher, Todi- 

 rostrum cinereum cinereum). It is 

 a feathered mite of a flycatcher, whose 

 insistent notes rather fills the place 

 of our familiar "chibec" of the east. 

 Its nest is a beautifully woven bag, 

 suspended from the lower branches of 

 a great variety of tropical trees. The 

 entrance is upon the side, like a tit's 

 nest, and the eggs pure whie. 



I have found many of them person- 

 ally. Along the rivers of Colombia, 

 in the Andes, in the botanical gardens 

 at Georgetown, near the jungle of Brit- 

 ish Guiana, and in a dozen other 

 places. Invariably in my experience 

 the nesting pair have placed their 

 home within a few inches of a wasp's 

 nest. The wasps in question are a 

 small social species of Polybia which 

 are very numerous in the tropics. 

 They construct a paper nest much 

 like that of our common Polistes, ex- 



cept that it much smaller, the paper 

 of darker pulp and the bottom of the 

 cells covered over. 



It is a case of symbiosis. The birds 

 do not bother the wasps. The wasps 

 respect the birds, doubtless to the 

 mutual benefit of one another. 



So much for the Tody. It never 

 occurred to me that this habit might 

 be frequent among birds of other 

 climes, even here in the East perhaps. 

 I thought nothing about it until re- 

 cently, but now it has become a topic 

 for special investigation and one of 

 interest to me. 



Last spring, on the 29th of May, I 

 was collecting in the woods near Stam- 

 ford, Connecticut. I had found, for 

 the first time in my life, four species 

 of warblers nesting within seventy- 

 five feet of one another! A beautiful 

 Redstart's nest and four richly colored 

 eggs; then, almost at my very feet, 

 the neat pocket in the leaves of an 

 ovenbird, containing five eggs with 

 their lovely wreathings of brown and 

 lavender. As I turned from this find, 

 a Blue-winged Warbler flashed past 

 with its ,mate. The tiny thing darted 

 straight into some wild rose briars 

 with a whisp of cedar shreds to add 

 to its half completed home. 



As I paused to watch, wondering 

 what next to expect, a Chestnut-sided 

 Warbler caught my eye on the edge 

 of a thicket close by. I wandered 

 towards it cautionsly and came 

 straight upon the nest from which I 

 flushed its mate. As I did so I felt 

 myself violently stung on the arm by 

 a large wasp. It was one of the big 

 Vespa hornets, commonly known as 

 a yellow jacket. Its nest of grey 

 paper hung from twig about eighteen 

 inches from the warbler's home and 

 provided ample protection. 



Late:*, on May 29th, I located a nest 

 of the Maryland Yellowthroat near my 

 house. To my surprise a nest of this 



