90 



THE OOLOGIST. 



sitting on the highest limbs, caroling 

 its notes. But as the season advan- 

 ces it begins to frequent the bird 

 boxes, fence posts, and othe places 

 suitable for nesting. 



Climbed to the robin's nest already 

 mentioned, and found in it four eggs. 

 No other robins have yet been noticed 

 building in the neighborhood. 



March 29. — Purple martins and 

 brown thrashers are arriving in num- 

 bers. The song of the thrasher can 

 be heard at all times. 



March 30. — Noticed a blackbird 

 building in an evergreen tree with- 

 in ten feet of the door of a house. 



April 1. — A pair of jay birds com- 

 menced work on a nest today in a 

 large maple tree. 



Saw a blackbird fighting a crow, 

 which was getting the worst of it. 



Saw a pair of phoebe birds on the 

 creek, the first of the season. They 

 acted as if they had been here for 

 several days. 



Mourning doves are here in num- 

 bers. 



Also ground robins (Towhee). 



Bluebirds are beginning to make 

 their nests. Saw several pairs at 

 work today. 



April 2. — The blue jays which be- 

 gan to build yesterday, have stopped 

 work on the nest in the maple and 

 are working on a new nest. Both 

 birds work on it. They use rags, 

 string, and such things, also short 

 hedge sticks. They only work a part 

 of the day, generally stopping about 

 noon. (Perhaps they belong to the 

 union). 



Saw a small bird today which 

 proved to be a white-eyed vireo. Saw 

 another later in the day. 



April 3. — Saw several wood pewees 

 in town today, the first of the sea- 

 son. 



April 5. — Found a bluebird's nest in 

 a hole in a fence post. It contained 

 four eggs. The nest was made of 



dried grass, feathers, hair, and fibers 

 laid in the bottom of the hole. 



Found a phoebe's nest under a 

 bridge. It was all finished, but no 

 eggs had been laid. 



Robins and blackbirds are begin- 

 ning to build generally. 



Found the new nest of the blue jays 

 mentioned. It was in a corner of a 

 porch, not over four feet from the 

 door. I never knew them to build so 

 close to a house. 



April 7. — Wood pewees .are here in 

 numbers. 



Blue jays are building now. 



Have seen the robin drive away 

 blackbirds from its nest several 

 times. One does not seem to hesitate 

 to attack two or even three of them. 



April S. — White-eyed vireos here in 

 numbers. Saw as many as four on a 

 small bushy tree today. One of them 

 will go all over a tree by short hops. 

 I approached within six feet of them, 

 but my presence did not disturb them. 

 Several of them sang a few notes. 

 The song is short, but very sweet and 

 pleasing. 



Noticed the first fox-colored spar- 

 row. It was in a clump of bushes 

 near the creek. 



April 9. — It seems that the robin's 

 nest mentioned on March 27 now con- 

 tains young, for I saw the old birds 

 carrying food to the nest. 



The robin builds its nest of grass 

 and mud. It uses the grass for a 

 foundation, rounding it up with mud 

 a quarter of an inch thick, and lining 

 it with dried grass. Today I found 

 one in a hedge not two feet from the 

 ground. 



A pair of blackbirds are building in 

 a large maple in front of our house. 

 They worked yesterday and today. 

 The female does most of the work, in 

 fact, the male does scarcely anything. 

 Once in a while he carries a few 

 blades of grass, and the female puts 

 them in the nest and arranges them. 



