The Oologist. 



Vol. XXIV. No. 6. 



Albion, N. Y. June, 1907. 



Whole No. 239 



THE OOLOGIST, 



A Monthly Publication Devoted to 

 OOLOGY, ORNITHOLOGY AND TAXI- 

 DERMY. 

 FRANK H. LATTIN, Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 

 ERNEST H. SHORT, Editor and Manager. 

 Correspondence and items of interest to the 

 ■trident of Birds, their Nests and Eggs, solicited 

 from all. 



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BRIEF NOTES ON THE SWAMP 

 SPARROW. 



By Richard F. Miller. 



The interesting notes of Thomas 

 Semmes, Jr., in the September Oolo- 

 gist regarding the Swamp Sparrow 



attracted my attention, inasmuch as 

 I am collecting data pertaining to the 

 nidification and other habits of this 

 species, having made it a subject for 

 monographic study. His statement 

 of nests being lined with horse- 

 hair causes me to ask whether 

 he is positive such nests were not 

 the Song Sparrow and the Swamp 

 living species? The nests of both 

 these species of Melospiza are great- 

 ly similiar in constructive and com- 

 position but I have yet to see a nest 

 of Swamp Sparrow lined with hair or 

 ( any other sort of material save grass 

 and I have found and have discrip- 

 tions in my note books' of several 

 hundred nests. The eggs of both 

 species are often alike and the nov- 

 ice is apt to confuse them, though 

 j to the advanced oologist there is 

 different in shell texture, the shell 

 of the Swamp Sparrow being thin 

 and brittle. 



.Mr. Semimes, Jr., says he never 

 found a set of six eggs. I have never 

 heard of this species laying more 

 than five eggs. Has anybody col- 

 lected sets of six laid by the same 

 bird? I would be very glad to hear 

 of such sets. Some authorities credit 

 the Swamp Sparrow as laying three 

 or four eggs only. However sets of 

 five are not common I may say that 

 this number of eggs is found but 

 once cut of every ten or twelve sets 

 I have found. Four is the uniform 

 number of eggs laid, very seldom less. 



Concerning Mr. Semmes' re- 

 marks about the destruction of many 

 of their eggs and nests, which he 

 thinks would cause a decrease in the 



