74 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Nidification of Ictinea Mississippiensis 



1. The egg of this beautiful Kite is so 

 rare in the cabinets of our numerous col- 

 lectors, that a description of the bird and 

 its nesting, will interest the readers of the 

 ' ' Oologist. ' ' I have been fortunate enough 

 to own no less than six eggs of this rare 

 and and active Raptore. In nry opinion, 

 this bird possesses as great volitorial powers 

 as its noted relative, the Swallow-tail, and 

 is also a much handsomer bird. 



2. These Kites are somewhat gregarious 

 and appear to return to the same locality 

 year after year. A pair visits our field every 

 season, remaining all summer, but as yet I 

 have not succeeded in finding their nest, if 

 they have any near us. Last year (1887), 

 they fitted up an old crow's nest, but for 

 some reason forsook it before any eggs 

 were deposited in it. 



3. The birds arrive here in April and 

 are somewhat rare, though their partially 

 gregarious habits make them appear less 

 frequent than is really the case. Though 

 I know only three nests that contained 

 eggs, I have found several old ones that 

 appear to have been built by this species. 



4. On the fifteenth of May, 1886, Mr. 

 J. I. Kirby, one of my collectors, discov- 

 ered a pair of these birds building in the 

 top of a post-oak tree, situated near the 

 mouth of the clear Fork river, in Young 

 County. He did not disturb them until the 

 21st when he shot the female, only bruis- 

 ing a wing, but succeeding in capturing 

 her. The next day I visited the nest with 

 him, when to our joy we fouud one egg, 

 pure white, with the usual hawk-like tex- 

 ture of shell, measuring 1.40x1.60, and it 

 was perfectly fresh. The nest was on a 

 horizontal limb near the top of the tree, 

 and was not much larger than that of the 

 mocking bird, being simply a flat platform 

 of twigs. Upon this was placed a quantity 

 of mesquite leaves, with a slight depression 

 in the center for the egg. After examining 

 the nest, we hastened back and turned the 

 captured bird loose '; for which net of mercy 

 we were rewarded some two weeks later, 



(June 5th. ) with a fine set of two eggs, ex- 

 actly like the preceding and in the same 

 nest. While the first egg was draining, one 

 of our summer whirlwinds (so common 

 here) passed by, leaving a broken egg and 

 a heart-broken oologist. 



5. In 1887, presumably the same pair 

 built within two hundred yards of their '86 

 home, the nest in all respects similar to the 

 one previously described, from which an 

 egg was taken June 29th. It is larger and 

 is smeared slightly with black, not so heav- 

 ily marked as to obscure totally the white 

 ground. This black is very probably an 

 accidental stain. It was highly incubated. 

 The birds had been driven from several un- 

 finished nests by too careful attention to 

 their movement p. 



6. Scarcely Ihree hundred yards fiom 

 these nests, another pair built a somewhat 

 larger one, from which on May 22d a fine 

 set of two immaculate white eggs were 

 taken, perfectly fresh and measuring 1.38x 

 1.59. 



7. As will be seen, all these eggs are sim- 

 ilar to the one described by Mi 1 . N. S. Gosh. 

 in the "Auk" for January, 1885, p:nge 21. 

 They are smaller, for he gives the measure 

 of his specimens as 1.70x1.35. With these 

 exceptions, all the other known eggs of this 

 bird are, I believe, spotted with brown or 

 black. They are probably like those of 

 many other Falconidae, very variable, both 

 in size and color, specimens either pure 

 white or slightly and heavily marked being 

 common. H. Y. B., 



Stephens County, 

 Texas. 



House Wren. 



Last spring (1887) a pair of House Wrens 

 took possession of one of tbe bird boxes put 

 up in our orchard for the use of such of the 

 feathered tribe as might chocse to take pos- 

 session of them. The nest was soon built, 

 wdiieh was composed of about two quarts 

 of small twigs and lined with feathers. 



May 2d, there was one egg laid, which I 

 left, having resolved to take one egg per 

 day and see how long they would keep lay- 



