44 Bulletin No. 15. 



This small company was recruited from day to day, first by such old 

 males as had not already been able to shift the care of the nest or young 

 upon the mate, a little later by the more forward young, and about July 

 10, by the more backward young and the old females. This order of 

 recruiting the roosting host was made very evident by the desertion of 

 the nest at night, a point which was carefully noted. The sudden com- 

 plete desertion of the nest by the old females and young and the simul- 

 taneous decided augumentation in the numbers found at the roost was 

 very noticeable about July 10. At this time the trees became so crowded 

 full of birds that other places were sought and occupied by the overflow. 

 On the 14th a few small campanies began to pass the night in the 

 shade trees on North Professor street, and on the 20th more were seen to 

 leave and settle in the trees on North Pleasant street south of the school 

 house. A few were contented with the low orchard trees north of Council 

 Hall. On the evening of July 17 the birds came in at the rate of 52 a 

 minute for an hour, the flight terminating with the arrival of an un- 

 countable company just as the sun sank below the horizon. There must 

 have been fully 5000 birds in the trees of the roost on this date, and 500 

 more in the neighboring trees. An actual count was impossible but a 

 fairly accurate estimate was arrived at from noting the appearance of the 

 trees immediately before the arrival of the last great flight, counting the 

 birds in sight, and their appearance after the flight ; and also noting the 

 time occupied by the last flight in passing a given point, the number of 

 birds abreast being known. These two methods gave practically the 

 same result. 



During the early part of July the birds did not wander far from the 

 roost at any time, but by the first of August lack of sufficient food in the 

 near vicinity forced them to go farther, when none were seen in town 

 during the day. Naturally enough, with the necessity for a wider range 

 for food came a change in the order of arrival and departure. The birds 

 no longer came straggling in from near the ground and from all direc- 

 tions, but arrived in greater or less companies from above the tree-tops 

 after considerable flights across the country. But a far better under- 

 standing of this change will be obtained if a detailed account of the 

 arrival and departure for two widely separated times is given. The 

 order of departure in the morning and arrival in the evening of May 23 

 will well illustrate the earlier manner. 



Arrived at the roost at 3:00 a. m. Temperature 50° ; air chilly. Partly 

 cloudy. Station : beneath a tree north of the roost. 



3:00. No evidence of bird life in the trees. 



