THE OOLOGIST 



101 



course in ornithology. It cannot be 

 described, much less exaggerated. Let 

 not some one who has seen only a 

 few hundred birds at a time, offer 

 comments; seeing is believing. A 

 few days before this, Barnum's show 

 visited Houston, but the visions of his 

 few elephants, camels, caged lions and 

 trained hippopotamuses artifically 

 proded about by brown Syrians in 

 red jackets faded into insignificance 

 in the presence of this matchless wave 

 of throbbing ornithology, this cease- 

 less roll of reverberating calls and 

 clatters, this miracle of instinct am! 

 naive adaptations. 



Dove Mimicking Cowbird 



The following incident is not an 

 oological triumph but it is of so un- 

 usual occurence that I thought a 

 short note would be permissable. 



On May 7th, 1919 I found a Mourn- 

 ing Dove and a Robin trying to keep 

 house together, or rather the Robin 

 was holding down the claim for the 

 both. In this case a Dove laid an egg 

 in the nest of a Robin who was work- 

 ing night and day to hatch three of 

 her own. A visit on May 13th found 

 the bird still incubating the four eggs, 

 and at that time the accompanying 

 photograph was taken. The upper 

 left egg is that of the Dove, and is 

 noticeably different in shape as well 

 as in color. The nest was located 

 twelve feet up in an apple tree in an 

 abandoned orchard near the outskirts 

 of Champaign, 111. Although I planned 

 to watch this strange nest closely the 

 opportunity to visit it again was lack- 

 ing and therefore, I cannot say as to 

 the outcome. 



Walter A. Goelitz. 

 Ravinia, 111., Feb. 6, 1919. 



tional nesting places of that fussy 

 little pest, the English Sparrow. 

 Among such erratic instances which 

 I have observed is one which I think 

 is worthy of record. 



One April day I went with a local 

 bird man to hunt nests of the red- 

 tailed hawk. As we passed the home 

 of a farmer friend he informed us that 

 a pair of hawks was nesting in a 

 large open woods on the far side of 

 the hill. Upon approaching this 

 woods we caught sight of the mother 

 bird as she stealthfully glided away 

 through the big timber. My friend, 

 who was an expert climber, ascended 

 the nesting tree and upon nearing the 

 hawk's home exclaimed that a female 

 English sparrow kept scolding from 

 the branches nearby. And what do 

 you suppose he found when he reached 

 the bottom of the large nest? Well, 

 tucked in among the coarse sticks was 

 a partly made sparrow's nest. In the 

 hawk's nest was a single incubated 

 egg. Measurements showed that the 

 tree was about one hundred and 

 twenty-five feet tall and the nest was 

 exactly one hundred feet above the 

 ground. 



S. S. Dickey. 



An English Sparrow Makes Its Home 

 In the Nest of a Hawk 

 Of course you have all heard about 

 or seen for yourselves some excep- 



Late Departure of the Barn Swallow 



In the December 1917, Oologist, I 

 recorded a Barn Swallow that was ob- 

 served at the Susquehanna on Oct. 

 20th, 1917. 



On Sept. 28th, 1918 a single Barn 

 Swallow was observed at the same 

 point along the Susquehanna River. 

 This point is visited by a great many 

 Swallows during the fall migration. 

 Although I did not visit this point in 

 the fall of 1918 since Sept. 28th, it 

 is my personal opinion that the Barn 

 Swallow regularly remains at this 

 point until late in September, and 

 often well into October. 



According to the March and April 





