ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 13 



Section One, Nest Seven 

 catbird 



Shrubbery near road, seven feet high. 



May 16, one egg. May 17, two eggs. May 18, three eggs. May 19, 

 four eggs. May 20, five eggs. May 31, five eggs. June 1, two eggs, three 

 birds. June 2, five birds. June 11, two birds, three in near-by elm. June 

 12. birds gone. 



ROBIN 



More than twice as many robin nests were built on the campus as any 

 other one kind. Some of these nests were built in small trees, some in large 

 ones, some in the ravine, some on the upland, and some at the edge of the 

 marsh. Complete data on many of the robin nests at the first of the season 

 were not obtained, due to the amount of time required to climb the trees 

 daily in order to get the facts. Later in the season an apparatus was 

 devised, which consisted of a large, adjustable mirror mounted on a bamboo 

 pole. With this apparatus it was possible to study nests to a height of 30 

 feet without climbing the trees, hence the data on the later nests were more 

 complete. As regards height from the ground, the nests ranged from two 

 and a half to forty feet. The distribution of the nests regarding this point 

 is as follows : 



Under 6 feet, 4; 6 to 10 feet, 28; 11 to 15 feet, 8; 16 to 20 feet, 10; over 20 feet. 

 4; no data, 10. 



The number of eggs in the nests in which the young were hatched ranged 

 from two to five. More than half the nests had in each, three eggs. All 

 save two of the nests recorded were in trees. 



Of the fifty nests located in trees, thirty-six were on top of a main branch 

 and against the side of the main trunk, in other words, a crotch formed by 

 a main branch and the trunk. Six nests were on top of a horizontal limb, 

 two were in crotches formed by the junction of branches, and no data were 

 recorded on six of them other than recording them as located in trees. 



At one time there were thirteen robin nests in the trees along the 

 walk between the writer's home and the main entrance of the building, a 

 distance of three and a half blocks. 



So far as the data may be relied upon there were 1 28 robin eggs in these 

 nests, of which 85 hatched. 35 of these young birds were killed or died 

 before they were old enough to leave the nest, which leaves 50 as the 

 recorded number of young robins successfully passing the brooding period. 



BROWN THRASHER 



The first nesting date of these birds on the campus was May third, and 

 the last, June twenty-ninth. Almost half of these birds nesting on the 

 campus began their nesting activities between the middle of May and the 

 first of June. 



Twenty-three of the nests were built in shrubbery, five were built in 

 climbing roses and Virginia Creeper on the walls of the main building, and 

 two were built on the ground. One of these ground nests was located at 

 the base of an elm tree, the other at the foot of a small crabapple sapling. 

 In two previous instances the writer has found nests of brown thrashers on 

 the ground ; in each case the nest was located in a bunch of mandrakes. 



