THE COLLECTORS' MONTHLY. 



to forest of pines a walk of about twelve 

 miles. We followed the railroad track for 

 about five miles and then cut over a field 

 to the B. & 0. R. R. Stock Yards where 

 we stopped for a lunch. While we were 

 eating I heard a noise like the tapping of 

 Woodpecker. On looking around I saw 

 author of the disturbance a Flicker (Col- 

 aptes Auratus) was making a home for 

 himself and mate. The place he had sel- 

 ected for his abode was a gate post at the 

 main gate where hundreds of people and 

 thousands of cattle passed daily. We left 

 Mr. Flicker and continued our journey 

 and got a very peculiar set of eggs of the 

 American Crow (Corvus americanus.) 

 All of them being pale green with outan;y 

 markings and one of them a runt measur- 

 ing 1.08x98. At first I did not know 

 what kiud they were as they were so pe- 

 culiar so I waited awhile hoping that the 

 bird would return and was pleased to see 

 a grayish white bird about the size of a 

 crow come flying right toward the nest. 

 She flew directly to the nest and looked 

 in and finding her eggs gone she gave a 

 plaintive Caw ! Caw, to her mate (as I 

 supposed) and she then flew low enough 

 to shoot so I raised up and blazed, and 

 down she dropped. I dropped my gun 

 and every think and ran to pick her up 

 and found a partial "Albino." As it was 

 the first Albino I had ever shot. I began 

 dancing up and down and gave such an 

 ear piercing "Warwhoop"thatit brought 

 my three friends up running as if for their 

 lives, to see if I had killed myself and 

 were greatly relieved to find that I wasn't 

 dead and they laughed till I thought they 

 would burst when I explained what had 

 happened and to this day if I happen to 

 cry out my friends say "Bert has shot an 

 Albino." But to return to the original 

 subject Mr. Flicker, I went out to the 

 nest, three weeks afterwards and secured 

 a fine set of seven eggs, a week after that, 

 I got five more. Three weeks passed and 



for curiosity I again visited the place and 

 found a set of five Blue birds eggs (Sialia 

 Sialis), thinking this very curious, wrote 



it up and sent it to the and it was 



published. But, this did not end it, for I 

 took two sets of eggs of the House Wren 

 (Troglodytes aedon) 1-7 and 1-6 respec- 

 tively, making a total of thirty eggs ta- 

 ken from one nest. 



Let us hear from more on the subject 

 of two or more birds nesting in this way. 

 Herbert E. Kaighn. 



Blue Jay. 



(For the Collectors' Monthly.) 

 (Cyanocitta Cristata.) 



This beautiful bird is very common in 

 this section. He is a very mischievous 

 bird. Many nests and eggs of smaller 

 birds are destroyed by him. He is very 

 fond of fruit and during the fruit season 

 you can always find one or more in an 

 orchard. 



He is very noisy, keeping up his scream- 

 ing all day. 



The nest is a rather bulky affair con- 

 taining in its composition rags, mud, 

 sticks, several yards of twine, cotton, 

 or any thing that can possibly be woven 

 into a nest. 



They vary in height from three to forty 

 feet, 



The nesting season is about three and 

 one-half months. Incubated eggs were 

 found the begining of March and fresh 

 ones in June. 



These are olive drab covered with cin- 

 namon spots. In some cases they are a 

 light green marked similarly. 



I have a set of two Albino eggs, one is 

 light green, without markings while the 

 other has a faint gray spot near the 

 larger end. 



The period of incubation is about three 

 weeks, from the day the egg are laid. 

 E. Raube, Texas. 



