162 



THE OOLOGIST 



the colors in July — but as soon as the 

 last bugle call has blown at the end 

 of war I expect to resume my corres- 

 pondence and Oology work where I 

 left off." The Lieutenant has recent- 

 ly lost both mother and sister with the 

 "flu" and is himself now convalescing 

 from an attack of the same dread dis- 

 ease. 



Observations on a Family of Winter 

 Wrens. 



On July 22, 1917 as I was following 

 an old skid-road up the hill from a 

 lumber camp, near Endeavor, Pa., I 

 noticed a female Winter Wren carry- 

 ing food in her bill. I stopped to 

 watch her and immediately the male 

 bird appeared. Neither seemed to be 

 very excited. After a few minutes the 

 female flew into a brushpile, but re- 

 appeared shortly with the food still 

 in her beak. Pretty soon she flew to 

 the base of a large overturned root 

 twenty-five or thirty feet from where 

 I was standing. About five feet near- 

 er and between me and the root was 

 an old rotten stump about two feet 

 high which made a clear view im- 

 possible. The bird disappeared behind 

 this stump but in a couple of minutes 

 hopped in sight again without the 

 moth she had previously carried in 

 her bill. 



Thinking that I would have no 

 tiouble in locating the nest as there 

 were only a few places in the root 

 where a nest could be built, the rest 

 being covered with mud, I walked 

 over, searched the entire root thor- 

 oughly, found nothing, returned to my 

 former position and waited for the 

 bird to come back. 



In a few minutes she was back once 

 more. After hopping about in plain 

 Sight for a couple of seconds she got 

 between the stump and the root where 

 I could not see her. In a minute or 

 two she appeared minus the food. This 



time I decided to look the stump over 

 although it was not a very promising 

 looking place. Almost at once I saw 

 a small hole about a foot above the 

 ground. A close examination revealed 

 nothing. I searched a little longer 

 then retired to a new position where 

 I could see both the stump and the 

 root, The next time the mother bird 

 returned she went directly to a hole 

 in the old decayed stump well-hidden 

 by an overhanging piece of punky 

 wood, within six inches of the hole I 

 had first found. I did not disturb the 

 nest, but instead sat down where I 

 could watch the bird bring food for 

 her young. I spent parts of four days 

 in watching and timing her trips for 

 food. 



On July 22nd between seven-thirty 

 and eight-thirty in the morning she 

 made twelve trips to feed her young. 

 The length of time for each trip varied 

 from as low as forty seconds to as 

 high as eleven minutes and fifteen 

 seconds. The average time for each 

 trip was four minutes and nine sec- 

 onds. 



On the 23rd between 9:45 and 11:00 

 in the morning she made nine trips. 

 The shortest one was one minute and 

 ten seconds; the longest twelve 

 minutes and fifty seconds. The aver- 

 age trip was six minutes and forty- 

 two seconds. 



From 4:35 till 5:50 p. m. on the 

 24th eleven trips were made. The 

 quickest one taking one minute and 

 twenty seconds while the longest was 

 seven minutes and twenty seconds. 

 The average time per trip was four 

 minutes and forty-seven seconds. 



Between 3:00 and 4:50 on the 25th 

 twelve trips were made of which the 

 shortest took one minute and fifteen 

 seconds and the longest exactly 

 twenty-seven minutes. The average 

 time for each trip was eight minutes 

 and twelve seconds, 



