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THE OOLOGIST 



month earlier we might have listened 

 to the weird thrilling call, Whip-poor- 

 will for May and June are the months 

 to hear this nocturnal music. 



Spring Migration 



The spring migration at Oberlin 

 seems to be unusually late this year. 

 Until yesterday the crows, Robins, 

 Bluebirds, and a few Song Sparrows 

 were the only arrivals which had 

 reached town. 



Yesterday afternoon, I visited a 

 sugar bush five miles south of town, 

 and the timber surrounding the 

 "shack" was just alive with birds. A 

 dozen or more crows had just come 

 in from the South, and had alighted 

 in the tops of the tall, bare trees. Tuft- 

 ed Titmice "peter-ed" to one another, 

 a lonesome Red-bellied Woodpecker 

 and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker were 

 busily eating insects on the same 

 tree, stopping every few minutes to 

 utter their shrill resonant cries, the 

 Downy Woodpecker, Flickers, Cardi- 

 nals, White and Red-breasted Nut- 

 hatches, and a Red-tailed Hawk were 

 all contributing to the medley of 

 songs. Later in the afternoon, the 

 Screech Owl, and a pair of Great 

 Horned Owls gave audible evidence 

 of their presence. A swamp adjoins 

 the woods on the north, and in the 

 young, bush-like Catalpa trees border- 

 ing the swamp, a flock of about forty 

 Red-winged Blackbirds announced 

 their arrival. It surely did seem good 

 to hear them again. A flock of "Wild 

 Ducks"I was unable to find out what 

 kind they were, as all ducks to some 

 people are "just wild ducks" — and a 

 flock of Canada Geese had been seen 

 there that morning. Killdeer, Mourn- 

 ing Doves, Meadowlarks, Song Spar- 

 rows and Bronzed Grackles, were seen 

 between the swamp and the house, a 

 distance of about eight hundred feet. 

 Near the house, the Bluebirds and the 



Robins were numerous, and, when I 

 reached the house a huge dish of 

 warm sugar, just brought over from 

 the "shack" awaited me! Taking 

 everything together, it was a most en- 

 joyable afternoon. Indications are, 

 this morning, that the belated migra- 

 tion has reached town. 



Helen M. Rice, No. 63. 

 Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. 



A SET OF SIX PHOEBE'S EGGS 



During the past twenty years I have 

 examined over a hundred nests of the 

 Phoebe containing sets and young 

 birds but I have only found one set of 

 six eggs and never saw a brood of 

 over five young. 



This set of six eggs is now in my 

 collection and was collected by my- 

 self on April 30, 1901, at Holmesburg, 

 Philadelphia, Pa., from a nest 

 plastered to the wall of the interior of 

 a spring house, a yard above the 

 water. The birds gain access to the 

 house through the enclosed blinds in 

 the two small windows. 



I look in every Phoebe's nest I find 

 in hopes of finding another set of six 

 but from my observations I have de- 

 cided that clutches of this number are 

 rare in Eastern Pennsylvania and New 

 Jersey. Five is the uniform set, four 

 eggs is frequently laid and three eggs 

 occur rarely. 



Richard F. Miller. 



We have several sets of six and one 

 set of seven in our collection. — Editor. 



Last May, 1917 I found a Bronzed 

 Grackle's nest and three eggs in a 

 hollow stub of a live tree. The stub 

 projected over a small pond. I thought 

 it quite an unusual nesting place for 

 this bird. 



Lyle D. Miller, 

 E. Claridon, Ohio. 



No, this is a common nesting site 

 for this species — Ed. 



