10 
ORNITnOLO(JIST 
[Vol. 6-No. 2. 
markinf^s though of similar size, the spots 
being larger and more distinet. of a dark 
reddish brown color and chiefly collected 
about the large end though not in a ring. 
I did not look again in 1875), but the 2oth 
of May, 1880, I repeated the same experi¬ 
ence in the same place, securing another 
set of foiu- fresh rosy eggs, prettily and 
neatly marked in the usual manner; and 
again on the 3d of June, only nine days 
later, I found another nest and four more 
eggs in the same spot. All these four sets 
were takim from within a radius of four 
feet, and I fancy were all of the same i>air 
of birds, thoiigh very difierently marked, 
for I have observed that Hooded Warblers 
are very unsocial, having never seen two 
pairs of them occupying the same locality 
or nearer than thirty rods of each other. 
If it was the same pair it would imply 
that the robbing of nest and eggs was no 
great loss to them if they can be so 
promptly and completely replaced. A 
few notes from my observations of the bird 
as found here and I will close. The male 
bird is seldom seen near the nest excei)t 
when it is building, or aftw the young are 
hatched, but he can usually be heard some 
twenty-five rods away, constantly repeat- 
ins: liis clear musical che-we-e-o. I have 
seen him in the mating season, hovering 
after the manner of the Chats, and warb¬ 
ling so sweetly and continuously that the 
song seemed more like a chorus than a 
solo; but this performance is rarely seen. 
The female is usually only a little plain 
“Yellow Bird,” with the bright yellow face 
contrasting sharply with the greenish yel¬ 
low of the back, but I have occasionally 
seen females with the black hood distinctly 
developed. I especially remembered one 
that I captured, with its nest and 
eggs, and which I really supposed to be a 
male till I had dissected it, the hood being 
as perfect as in the average male. 
The bird may usually be heard by the 
first week of May ('id my earliest record.) 
in their usual haunts from some dense 
thicket, and the female arrives I think a few 
days later though she is so tjuiet and in- 
consjiicuous that she might be there and yet 
unobserved. Some of the birds tarry till 
September. Despite the assertions of sev¬ 
eral writers of note to the contrary. I 
pronounce the species a very common one 
here, in evidence of which I found in the 
season of 1880, eleven nests, with four 
eggs each in every instance but one, which 
had a Cow Birds and three Hooded \Varb- 
lers. I believe that when the bird and its 
habits become better known its breeding 
range will be found to be more extensive in 
Connecticut, than the little town of Say- 
brook, if not it would seem a very remark¬ 
able circumstiince. J. N. Cl.\bk. 
Horned Lark. 
NESTING H.eBITS IN OaLE.\NS CO., N. Y. 
The Eremophila alpesti in is (piite com¬ 
mon in this part of the state and is gener¬ 
ally seen on some sandy knoll or by the 
roadside dusting thefLselves. During 
the past few years I have spent considera¬ 
ble time in trying to find their nests, but 
with little success until the past season, 
when cpiite unexpectedly on April 17, 1880, 
when crossing an old pasture lot I acci¬ 
dentally found a nest, and while approach 
ing it the old bird (piietly left it appearing 
(juite unconcerned whether 1 took the four 
nearly Hedged young that it contained, or 
not. The nest was placed in a cup-shaped 
cavity lined with June grass. As the day 
was cohl and windy the young did not at¬ 
tempt to leave the nest, but huddled to¬ 
gether and tried to hide themselves under 
one another and when I touched them they 
only sijuatted the closer. The Homed 
Lark must be a very hardy bird for this 
nest had weathered very cold stonas in 
safety. About this time I found a crows 
nest with two eggs which were frozen. 
.\pril 15)th, visited the Horned Larks mst, 
when the young ones immediately scramb¬ 
led out of it afid made ofl' in a way that 
was comical to behold, they were not ohl 
enough to fly but by using legs and wings 
they tumbled off in a lively manner. 
