THE OOLOGIST. 



af/CO,** 07 



11 



greatest number seen on any one day 

 and this in a locality where thirty 

 were observed May 21, 1905. I also 

 discovered that the two pieces of tim- 

 ber, where all the previously describ- 

 ed nests were found, had been cut 

 down last winter and the scarcity of 

 birds combined with the necessity of 

 looking up new territory rendered 

 the prospect of nest finding most 

 discouraging, but I determined to try 

 for them and was rewarded by three 

 nests. 



Nest 12, May 20, 1906— While War- 

 bler hunting in a thick piece of woods 

 on P. C. 31, Ecorse Township, I de- 

 tected a female Cerulean stripping 

 fine pieces of fibrous bark from a 

 grape vine that clung to a tall elm. 

 She flew directly to the nest, some 50 

 yards away, and after arranging the 

 material, returned to the vine and 

 climbed up and down the elm beside 

 it until a suitable bit of material was 

 detected. She worked rapidly and by 

 my watch, it required only six min- 

 utes to select and) gather the material, 

 arrange it in the nest and make the 

 trip to and from the vine. The nest 

 was on the horizontal fork of a small 

 elm branch 30 feet above the ground 

 and unlike all previous sites the 

 branch was entirely dead. I returned 

 June 3rd, but a severe wind storm 

 had snapped off the branch close to 

 tree trunk. It lodged in a lower 

 branch with the nest intact but bot- 

 tom side up. Nothing was seen or 

 heard of the birds, and I believe they 

 abandoned the locality. 



Nest 13, June 3, 1906.— The nest 

 was placed on the horizontal fork of a 

 white oak limb eight feet from the 

 main trunk and 15 above the ground 

 in rather open woods, but with dense 

 second growth. I nearly missed 1 it 

 as it was surrounded and concealed 

 by the tops of the second growth. 

 The female was covering four incu- 

 bated eggs and was very tame. The 



locality was P. C. 66, Ecorse Town- 

 ship. 



Nest 14, June 6, 1906— The nest was 

 placed on the horizontal fork of a 

 white oak limb seven feet from the 

 tree trunk and about 40 above the 

 ground in open woods, but with dense 

 bush growth. The tail of the female 

 could be plainly seen from the 

 ground. Four incubated eggs were 

 in the nest and the locality was P. C. 

 239, Gratiot Township. 



J. CLAIRE WOOD, 



Detroit,- Mich. 



Immaculate Sets of the Long-billed 

 Marsh Wren. 



In Mr. R. F. Miller's excellent pa- 

 per on the Long-billed Marsh Wren 

 in the September Oologist, he speaks 

 of having never met with a perfectly 

 immaculate set. It has been my good 

 fortune to find several. The last, a 

 set of four, was secured June 3rd or 

 6th, 1902 in Ecorse Township. These 

 were also abnormal in shape, hav- 

 ing somewhat the contour of a lima 

 bean. They are now in the collec- 

 tion of J. Warren Jacobs, Jr. I men- 

 tion an immaculate set in the Oologist 

 for February, 1S92, on page 40. 



The absence of pigment in a wren 

 appears to indicate physical detri- 

 ment, as immaculate sets are usually 

 infertile. An exception is a beautiful 

 set of six taken by my brother on the 

 St. Clair Flats. These were all in 

 a healthy state of incubation. He al- 

 so took a unique set of five of the 

 common chocolate type, but three of 

 the eggs are marked with irregular 

 oriole like scrawls of black. 



J. CLAIRE WOOD, 

 Detroit. Mich. 



