66 
ORNITHOLOGIST 
[Vol. 6-No. 9 
about the color of those of the Summer Red 
Bird, sprinkled sparingly on the cheeks and 
throat, and extending as far as the middle of 
the breast. These, and two in Mr. Ridg- 
way’s ])ossession, are all 1 ever saw or heard 
of that were so strongly marked.— Fred. T. 
Jencks, Prmndence, R /. 
Notes from Maryland. 
Rough-winged Sw.ai.i.ows are (piite 
common in this county, building their nests 
in the masonry of bridges and mills over 
water courses. Their nests are especially 
common along the .Antietam Creek. They 
generally breed in single pairs or at most 
not more than three or four pairs at one 
bridge or other locality. : 
A Snowy Owe was brought to me, Janu- ' 
ary ist, i88r, alive, but it died from unknown j 
causes a few minutes after I got it. It had i 
been shot in the wing about three weeks be¬ 
fore, at a point nine miles west of Hagers¬ 
town. It was a male and was nearly white. 
This is the fourth or fifth specimen killed in ' 
this county during the past five years. j 
The Tufted Titmouse is a common j 
resident in this locality, nesting in natu-, 
ral cavities in trees, nearly always in an or¬ 
chard, and generally rather low down. Last 
sjiring a pair stayed about a box in the yard 
for a week, and seemed almost decided to 
build, as I hoped they would, but finally 
left for other quarters. The usual set of j 
eggs seem to be six. The nests are loosely I 
made of hair, wool, feathers, &c. j 
Ravens are occasionally shot in the wild¬ 
er portions of this county and they proba¬ 
bly breed along the Botomac River in the 1 
slate lulls region. • j 
PiLEATED WooD-PEUKERS are not un¬ 
common in the heavy lumber lands. 
Blue Birds. — Has any one noticed a 
scarcity of Blue Birds the past season ? 
'I’hey wintered here in larger numbers than 
1 ever knew them to do, but began to dis¬ 
appear in January and February, and I only 
found about four nests this season Could i 
the birds have been killed by the severe 
cold of last winter? From one of the nests I 
I got a set of icdii/e ei^'^s. When fresh they 
had the rosy characteiistic of Wood-peck¬ 
er’s, but on being blown the white assumed 
a slight blueish tint. 
('hapakral Cock. —In the March O. 
and ()., Mr. B. W. Everman writes that he 
never found more than two eggs in the nest 
of this bird, and that it would seem that two 
eggs is the usual clutch. I have a set of 
four eggs, nearly fresh, from FLagle Pass, 
Texas, and I had sent to me a set of five fresh 
eggs from the same ])lace, but three of them 
were broken in the mails.— Ed^ar A. Small, 
Ha^erstim>n, Md. 
- « - 
Small-billed Water Thrush. 
May 30th, 1881, whiltT collecting in a 
swamp on the norih bank of the Seneca Riv¬ 
er, Onondago County. N. V , I found a nest 
of the Small-billed Water 'Thrush {Siurus 
ncevius), t>jues, containing one egg and three 
young birds. I was about a hundred yards 
from the edge of the swamp and looking for 
an old hawk’s nest, when the bird flew out 
from under the roots of a tree near by. .-Xf- 
ter a careful search I found the nest un¬ 
der a projecting root and so well concealed 
by overhanging rootlets that it could not be 
seen until the eye was nearly on a level with 
it. It nearly filled the cavity and was made 
chiefly of moss and leaves lined with fine 
rootlets Inside, the dimensions were about 
two and a half inches across by two deep- 
'The outside meastirement could not well be 
taken as it was built of material very similar 
to what surrounded it. I took the egg and 
shot the female so that there might be no 
mistake, but left the nest and young, hoping 
that the male would care for them. 'The egg 
was addled but contained no embryo, so I 
succeeded in blowing it and have it now in 
my collection. It measures .75 inch by .56 
inch. 'The ground color is white, speckled 
sjiaringly at the sinaller end and very thick¬ 
ly on the larger with shades varying from 
lilac to dark brown. Next spring I shall 
make a careful search for another nest and if 
successful will give you a more complete de¬ 
scription. — M. K. Barnum, Syracuse, N. Y. 
