THE OOLOGIST 



67 



game law took effect, I considered 

 myself lucky to find one nest a season. 

 I also found one nest of wood ducks. 

 This was my first and only nest of 

 this rare bird. 



Mearl B. Wheeler, 

 East Randolph, N. Y. 



The "Arkansas Kingbird 



The vernacular name Arkansas Fly- 

 catcher does not refer to the state of 

 Arkansas. Our good friend Peabody 

 evidently supposes it does. (The Oolo- 

 gist, XXXVI, 25, 1919). It refers to the 

 type locality, the valley of the Arkan- 

 sas River, in Colorado or Western 

 Kansas, which is within the breeding 

 range of the species. Concerning the 

 Sage "Hen," some ornithologists who 

 strictly follow the rulings of the A. 

 O. U. Committee on technical names, 

 do not hesitate to hark back to the 

 second edition of the Checklist, 1895, 

 and retain the vernacular name Sage 

 "Grouse," using sage "hen" only for 

 the female and sage "cock" for the 

 male. 



Junius Henderson. 



Early Nesting of Some Common Birds 



When I was just a youngster start- 

 ing out in the collecting realm I never 

 could wait until the nesting season 

 was at hand but must go forth to 

 field, wood, and thicket to search for 

 nests long before most birds had even 

 begun to build. But such investiga- 

 tions occasionally brought reward and 

 a few exceptionally early nests of 

 common birds were discovered. 



Well I remember one late March 

 day spent at the side of a creek that 

 flows near the town of Waynesburg, 

 Pennsylvania. The weather had been 

 mild for some days and the birds were 

 frolicking about and chirping in the 

 weeds and brush. I chanced to pass 

 quite near a cluster of debris which 

 had lodged during high water on the 

 branches of an osage orange hedge, 



and out flew a Cardinal, — there was a 

 newly constructed nest well hidden 

 from view. About the last day of 

 March or the first of April it held two 

 eggs. Due to a heavy freeze this nest 

 and eggs were deserted. 



April 5, 1903 I collected three eggs 

 from the nest of a Robin that was 

 built 10 feet up in an American elm 

 tree. There had been quite a cold 

 snap the night previously and this had 

 doubtless killed the mother bird, for 

 she lay dead in the nest. 



I passed through an old apple orch- 

 ard on April 2, 1904 and found a nest 

 of the Bluebird built in an abandoned 

 hairy woodpecker's excavation. With- 

 in the nest were two fresh eggs. About 

 one week later I found another Blue- 

 bird's nest containing full-fledged 

 young. 



April 4, 1904, while in company with 

 a veteran ornithologist of Waynes- 

 burg, Pa., I discovered the nest of a 

 mourning dove built a few feet up in 

 a cluster of wild grape vines. The 

 mother bird was sitting upon two 

 slightly incubated eggs. 



April 5, is my earliest record for a 

 nest and eggs of the Carolina Wren, 

 although a friend of mine found a nest 

 in Waynesburg that held eggs late in 

 March. However, due to cold weather 

 the birds deserted the nest. 



The Phoebe sometimes nests early in 

 southwestern Pennsylvania. April 8, 

 1905 I collected a nest and five fresh 

 eggs from a rafter in the lower story 

 of a sheep shed, on a high windy 

 ridge 



S. S. Dickey. 



Redheaded Woodpecker Nesting In 

 West Haven, Conn. 



In looking over my not book for the 

 season of 1914, I find a record of a 

 pair of Redheaded Woodpeckers nest- 

 ing in a telephone pole at West 

 Haven. 



