Ridgway on Birds observed at Mount Carmel. 165 
Eremophila alpestris. Horned Lark. — Abundant in suitable local- 
ities. Found mostly on commons and about fallow fields. 
Cyanocitta cristata. Blue Jay. — One of the most numerous and 
generally distributed of all birds ; also probably the least wary. As an 
evidence of these facts, it may be mentioned that the writer killed five 
Blue Jays in two successive shots, without the expectation of killing more 
than one at either time. 
Myiarchus crinitus. Great-crested Flycatcher. — The most 
abundant of the Flycatchers, and quite familiar, often breeding in boxes 
put up for the Martins and Bluebirds. 
Antrostomus carolinensis. Chuck-will’s-widow. — A single speci- 
men seen flying w r ith some Night Hawks ( Ghordeiles popetue ) late one 
evening, about the 20th of April. It is not an uncommon species, its 
notes being frequently heard. Strange to say, however, neither this spe- 
cies nor the "Whippoorwill was once heard during our visit of six weeks’ 
duration. 
Coccyzus americanus. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. — Extremely 
abundant, it being not unusual to hear the notes of half a dozen or more 
at the same time. Outnumbers C. erythrophthahnus in the proportion of 
about ten to one. Eggs of both species were found in the same nest ! 
Melanerpes erythrocephalus. Red-headed Woodpecker. — Ex- 
ceedingly abundant and very tame. By far the most numerous species 
of the family. 
Falco communis nsevius. Duck Hawk. — This is by no means a 
rare bird in the heavy timber of the river bottoms. Three nests were found 
in the immediate vicinity of the town, and no doubt more could have been 
found in localities not explored. All were placed in cavities in the top 
of very large sycamore-trees, and were inaccessible. One of these trees 
was felled, however, the peculiar character of the base and decided inclina- 
tion of the trunk from the perpendicular rendering this a comparatively 
easy matter. The swollen base of this tree was twenty-six feet in circum- 
ference, the cylindrical portion of the trunk itself, some seven feet above, 
being sixteen and one half feet around. The base was hollow, and had 
been reduced by fire to an average thickness of less than a foot, while the 
axis of the tree leaned some thirty degrees from the perpendicular. It 
therefore required only the severing of the wall on the side of tension, for 
a distance of four or five feet, to destroy the equilibrium of the tree, 
which soon came down with a terrific crash. Measurements with a tape- 
line showed the nest to have been eighty-nine feet from the ground, its 
location being a shallow cavity, caused by the breaking off of the main 
limb, the upper part of which projected over sufficiently to form a pro- 
tection from the sun and rain. This limb was four feet in diameter ; the 
total height of the tree, although the whole top had been blasted by 
storms, was one hundred and fifteen feet, so that its original height must 
