188 



THE OOLOGIST 



Texas Bewicks Wren, common. 



Tufted Titmouse, common. 



Plumbeous Chickadee, common. 



Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, rare. 



Bluebird, common. 



Wood Duck, rare. 



Green Heron, rare. 



American Coot, rare. 



Killdeer, common. 



Bob white, scarce. 



Mourning Dove, common. 



Turkey Vulture, common. 



Black Vulture, common. 



Harris Hawk, rare. 



Red-tailed Hawk, rare. 



Red-shouldered Hawk, rare. 



Krider Hawk, rare. 



Sparrow Hawk, rare. 



Barn Owl, common. 



Horned Owl, rare. 



Barred Owl, rare. 



Long-eared Owl, rare. 



Screech Owl, common. 



Burrowing Owl, rare. 



Ramon Graham, 

 Ft. Worth, Texas. 



Two Notes on Vireos 



In June, 1918, I collected a set of 

 three slightly incubated White-eyed 

 Vireo eggs, taking the nest with the 

 eggs, near Nevada, Mo. The nest was 

 in a small crotch on the end of a low- 

 hanging branch of an Osage Orange, 

 and was about one foot above the 

 ground. The following day I located 

 the pair building a new nest about 

 fifty feet away in some tall weeds. This 

 time the nest was about three feet 

 from the ground. I don't know 

 whether this is unusual or not, but it 

 seems to me that the pair wasted very 

 little time in beginning their new nest. 



Our most abundant breeding Vireo 

 at Lexington is the Bell's Vireo. Nests 

 may be found with complete sets the 

 last week in May. I think four eggs 

 is about the medium number of eggs 

 unless a Cowbird lays in the nest, 



which in four out of five nests is the 

 case. On May 29, 1918, I collected a 

 set of five eggs. This is the largest 

 set I have collected, but as the eggs 

 were fresh, there might have been 

 more had I left it. The most common 

 sets consist of two Vireo's and three 

 Cowbird's and vice-versa. The nests 

 are to be found in the dense willow 

 growths along the Missouri River. A 

 horizontal crotch about four feet from 

 the ground is the usual choice. The 

 nests are tightly woven, deep baskets, 

 and are so strongly built that they 

 often last through one or two winters. 

 The nests are best located by tracing 

 the "sewing machine song" of the 

 male. 



Bird Notes 



Boat-tailed Grackle and Mourning 

 Dove keeping house in the same nest. 



I read in the June number where a 

 Dove and a Robin laid their eggs in 

 the same nest. Several seasons ago a 

 local collector and myself took a trip 

 around the Everman loop south of Ft. 

 Worth. We came to a Boisdarc 

 thicket about 150 feet long and 50 feet 

 wide. It was near the road so we give 

 it an examination. And a colony of 

 Grackles were found here. You could 

 see nests every where you looked. 

 The Grackles were tame, many stay- 

 ing on the nests while others flew 

 around cackling at us. We took sev- 

 eral nice sets and observed many 

 more. A Dove was seen sitting on a 

 Grackle's nest, so we took a look and 

 to our surprise she was sitting on two 

 eggs of her own and three Grackle's 

 eggs. I estimated that about fifty 

 pairs were nesting in this thicket. The 

 Grackles' haunts are being slowly cut 

 down. So they seem to be using some 

 other part of the country as I only ob- 

 served several pairs on my last trip 

 around the loop. 



Ramon Graham. 



