6 
THE WILSON BULLETIN— March, 1922 
insect-like buzzing noise of the iminatnre, accompanied by actions 
similar to those of the young when begging for food. My first 
experience with the rattling note of this bird was at the first 
nest I discovered. After I had forced my way through a dense 
tangle of vines, and reached the loose pile of twigs that com- 
posed the nest, I was almost shocked at the fierce visage of the 
brooding bird, and the sharp incisive rattle. Though she left 
the nest at once, and quietly, she gave me the impression of 
having some sinister purpose in doing so. 
I do not know whether both parent birds incubate, as the 
sexes are quite indistingnishable in the field, and I never tagged 
any birds at the time. However, it was often possible to come 
very near the sitting bird, and on one occasion I very nearly 
touched the tail of a bird brooding in a thicket of stretchberries. 
Many old nests were discovered before finding one in use. 
Invariably they were placed some feet from the ground, nearly 
ahvays in trees, and with an apparent preference for a horizontal 
bough or crotch, true to Cuckoo cnstnm. I could not see that 
they favored any special species of tree, and nests were often 
placed in rather open situations, where they Avere not especially 
difficult to see or approach. The first occupied nest I found was 
built about seven feet from the ground in the midst of an 
almost impenetrable thicket growing at the edge of the second 
woods.’’ Here from a distance I saw the iridescent tail of an 
incubating bird sticking up, parallel Avith and in front of one 
of the limbs upon Avhich the nest Avas built. The bird was 
eyeing me all the time, and when T came too close she ( ?) raised 
her head, put up her crest and left the nest in great haste, 
though with wonderful poise and grace. In the nest were ten 
eggs, all apparently somewhat incubated, or at least more or less 
clouded and dirty. This nest was situated in a crotch, and was 
not at all symmetrical, being about eighteen inches one Avay, 
and only eleven inches the other, and a large part of the founda- 
tion material bulged out in a careless and overbalanced way. 
The material used was largely twigs, and the lining of the nest 
looked as though it had dropped in by chance from the sur- 
rounding vegetation rather than placed there by the parent 
birds. This nest was found on April 13, 1913. The next day two 
birds were hatched, and the following day a third, until on the 
17th there were eight birds, and I presume, two eggs. In my 
former account of this nesting* I stated that there Avere two 
* Bird-Lore, 1913 — Sept.-Oct. 
