THE OOLOGI8T 



97 



Bird Notes from Lake Worth, Tarrant 

 County, Texas. 



By Ramon Graham 



March 15, 1919. Belted Kingfisher 

 observed by Earl Moffat. They were 

 digging a hole in the banks of a gravel 

 pit near my camps. On April 27 they 

 had four eggs. Five Kingfishers holes 

 observed in March, April and May. 

 On May 16th I observed a Kingfisher 

 hole in a sand bank of Goat Island, 

 Lake Worth. Upon examination I 

 found that there was a set of seven 

 eggs, heavily incubated. The bird 

 would not leave the nest. 



March 30, 1919. Noticed first arriv- 

 al of Scissor tail Flycatcher. One 

 pair building a nest in a dead tree 

 out in the lake near camps on May 

 16th. 



April 7, 1919. Observed a set of 

 five Screech Owls, looked to be heav- 

 ily incubated. On this date I watched 

 a pair of Blue Grey Gnatcatchers 

 building a nest. Later on I went for 

 further observations and a storm had 

 blown the nest down, and on April 

 20th I went back to the same woods, 

 I saw a Gnatcatcher doing some ac- 

 robat stunts while catching gnats. 

 She kept this up for about fifteen 

 minutes, then she went to her nest 

 which was situated on a horizontal 

 limb about three feet from the main 

 trunk of the tree. I went up and 

 found one egg and a Cowbird's egg. 

 On May 8th I went back again and 

 the Cowbird was hatched and the 

 Gnatcatcher egg was there but the 

 birds had deserted the nest. 



April 28, 1919. Turkey Vultures 

 were nesting on the rocky banks of 

 Lake Worth near camps. One set 

 observed on this day. 



April 29, 1919. Found Bells Vireo 

 nest with three Cowbirds eggs in it. 

 I took them out and went back later 

 and the birds had deserted the nest. 



April 30, 1919. I observed a pair of 



Summer Tanagers building a nest 

 within three inches of where they had 

 a nest and successfully raised their 

 young last year. On May 13th there 

 were three Tanager eggs an one Cow- 

 bird. 



May 1919. Whippoorwills around 

 camps every night this month but no 

 eggs observed so far. 



May 7, 1919. Observed a pair of 

 Crested Flycatchers mating. 



May 8, 1919. Watched a Loon do 

 some long distance diving out in the 

 lake. 



May 10, 1919. Texas Bewicks Wren 

 nesting in a bird house placed in a 

 tree in front of my camp. 



May 14, 1919. Observed a set of 

 seven Dickcissel. Four of the eggs 

 had brown specks on the large end; 

 the others were blue. Out of several 

 hundreds sets observed by me this is 

 the first set that ever had any mark- 

 ings on them. Is this a freak set or 

 has other collectors ever found any 

 of them. 



May 16, 1919. About 200 geese ob- 

 served flying over the lake. I saw 

 six Snow Geese last year in April. 

 These are the first white geese ob- 

 served by me on Lake Worth in four 

 years. Also found a Red-headed Wood- 

 pecker hole with one egg on this date 



March, April and May. Many Ducks, 

 Geese, Pelicans, Gulls and Terns ob- 

 served during these months. 



May 15, 1919. The Hummingbirds 

 are laying in full blast. I have ob- 

 served several nests lately. 



May, 1919. Night Hawks observed 

 about camps every evening. 



Blackbirds in Texas 



By R. A. Sell 



"Fust come the blackbirds clatterin' 



in the trees 

 And settlin' things in strange con- 

 gresses, 



