THE OOLOGIST 



127 



Collection of Birds of Synalure Island, 

 Western Sumatra by Harry C. Ober- 

 holser — Separate proceedings of the 

 United States National Museum, Vol. 

 55 pages 473-98-1919. This paper, as 

 it's title indicates, is a truly technical 

 treatment of the birds included there- 

 in and is handled with the usual thor- 

 oughness of Dr. Oberholser. — Editor. 

 "Birds of My Boyhood," by Howard 

 Jones, Circleville, Ohio, 1915. This 

 paper was read by the author before 

 the Wilson Ornithological Society in 

 1915. It is a very well prepared 

 resume of the birds observed by Dr. 

 Jones in his boyhood and contains 

 much valuable information with refer- 

 ence to the founa of that territory 

 from 1850 to 1880. Appended to the 

 publication is a list of birds observed 

 from 1906 to 1916 in Pickoway Coun- 

 ty, Ohio, by the author. It is too bad 

 that more ornithologists and oologists 

 do not give us the benefit of their ob- 

 servations made in early life. 



— Editor. 



The Plumbeous Chickadee. 



I was out croppie fishing March 

 10th,. The croppies bit very well un- 

 til after sun up, then they slowed 

 down, so I went to watching the birds. 

 I sat in my boat and observed many 

 Woodpeckers, Crested Flycatchers, 

 Tufted Titmouse, Plumbeous Chicka- 

 dees and Kingfishers. The sun was 

 very bright and the old dead timber 

 out in the lake was alive with birds. 

 So I kept my eyes open for birds 

 carrying nesting material. Not many 

 minutes passed, when I spied a 

 Plumbeous Chickadee in a dead tree, 

 collecting moss. She flew to a dead 

 tree near the bank of the lake. There 

 were three Woodpecker holes in the 

 tree and she went into the middle 

 hole. I took out my book and made 

 a note of it. I knew by her carrying 

 moss, the nest was just started. As 



moss is the first material used in mak- 

 ing a foundation for the nest. A few 

 minutes later she passed again with 

 moss. I gave her four days in which 

 to complete the nest, and the nest was 

 completed on the fourteenth day of 

 March. I lined them up for a full set 

 and on the twenty-third, late in the 

 evening, after my boat and minnow 

 trade had ceased, I took my motor 

 boat and hit the trail to pay the chick- 

 adees a visit. Arriving at the tree, 

 and with the kind and careful assist- 

 ance of Jake Zeitlin, an enthusiastic 

 ornithologist, we collected the set. 



I tied the boat to a tree and got out 

 on deck, then climbed to the hole and 

 looked out. Out came Mrs. Chickadee 

 and hollered for help and her old 

 man was soon on the job, cussing me 

 for everything he could think of. I 

 came down to the lower limb and Mr. 

 Zeitlin handed me a saw. I sawed a 

 part of the top limb off, then I re- 

 moved the side near the hole. There 

 were eight fresh eggs as expected. 

 After passing them down to Mr. Zeit- 

 lin I proceeded to saw the nesting 

 cavity from the tree. After collect- 

 ing the nest, eggs, and the part of the 

 tree that the nest was in we made a 

 careful and accurate data as follows: 

 "A. O. U. 736 a Plumbeous Chickadee, 

 collected by Ramon Graham, assisted 

 by Jake Zeitlin. Located twenty feet 

 from the banks of Lake Worth, in a 

 dead tree twenty feet from the banks 

 of Lake Worth, in a dead tree twelve 

 feet up from the water. The water 

 here is a creek channel and is thirty 

 feet deep. The tree near east bank 

 one and one half miles north east of 

 Nine Mile bridge and bathing beach, 

 in a motor boat when collected, near 

 Fish point of Sansons Ranch, March 

 23, 1919, set mark 20-8 incubation 

 fresh, eight eggs in set. Identity sure. 

 Some of the same birds were identified 

 by the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture sev- 



