THE OOLOGIST 



97 



cries (similar to those of the flicker 

 but very much louder). The male 

 was a very much prettier bird than 

 the female, having a large bright red 

 crown and more white on his wings. 



Greatly encouraged by these "good 

 signs" I went home and came back 

 the next day with a large hook and 

 two negro men to help me get to the 

 nest which was forty-five feet up in 

 one of the biggest pine trees that I 

 had ever seen. I tied the hook firmly 

 on the little end of a tall sapling that 

 I had cut down and trimmed up, then 

 with the help of the "niggers" I 

 hooked the hook in the mouth of the 

 hole. This gave me something to 

 climb up to the hole on. After I had the 

 hook caught well in the hole and tied 

 at the bottom, I wasted no time but 

 was soon at the inference of the nest. 

 It was then that I found, to my great 

 surprise and disgust, that I had for- 

 gotten the one essential thing, a 

 hatchet. I then tried to reach the 

 eggs with my hand but it was too 

 deep. Seeing that it was useless to 

 waste more time, I went back. When 

 I reached home and got a hatchet it 

 was too late to start back so I waited 

 until next morning. 



On climbing up to the nest the next 

 day I heard some young birds and on 

 cutting into the nest found that it con- 

 tained four young Pileated Woodpeck- 

 ers only a few hours old. Although 

 disappointed at not being able to col- 

 lect a set of eggs, I now knew some- 

 thing of their nesting habits and would 

 know better where to look for their 

 nests. 



That same summer and fall lumber- 

 men and tie cutters made a sweep 

 through that country, driving the 

 pileated woodpeckers far back into 

 the bottoms and swamps. Since then 

 very few of these, the most majestic 

 of all woodpeckers, have been seen 

 and no nests were found in 1916. 



DeLoach Martin. 



OBSERVATIONS OF SWAINSON'S 



WARBLER 



Copan, Washington Co., Okla. 



By Albert J. Kirn 



I was not aware of the presence of 

 this bird until a nest was found. It 

 was much different from anything else 

 and its white egg made me feel that 

 it was something good. On returning 

 the next day the bird was at home and 

 allowed a rather close approach, giv- 

 ing a fine view of her. ' 



I later found this a characteristic of 

 the bird; no doubt from the fact of its 

 back harmonizing so well with its 

 nest made it reluctant to leave, trust- 

 ing to being overlooked rather than 

 leave and disclose the conspicuous 

 eggs. An approach of four or five feet 

 was not at all difficult. Their nests 

 are always built of leaves with a nest 

 cup of grass stems, the lining being 

 much finer and usually with a few 

 white or dark long hairs. Outwardly 

 they look much like a bunch of fallen 

 leaves caught in the top of the small 

 bush in which they are placed. In 

 size they range from five by six to five 

 by eight or nine inches across and three 

 or four inches deep. The nest cup is 

 usually 1.5 inches deep by two inches 

 across. 



A well shaded clump of trees in the 

 woods, such a place as would suggest 

 itself for a Wood Thursh, yet not 

 exactly so, with considerable "buck 

 brush" undergrowth, but no grass or 

 weeds is selected for a nesting site. 

 In this top of this "buck brush" usual- 

 ly about two feet high the nest is 

 built, about half of the nests found 

 were close to the river bank, — The 

 Little Caney River. All but two 

 were built in the brushy undergrowth. 

 These two were fastened to briers 

 and slender brush and were higher up, 

 3.5 and 4 feet. They were also more 

 readily seen. None of their nests are 

 hid; trusting no doubt to being over- 

 looked for a bunch of leaves. 



