May, 1882.] 
AND OOLOGIST. 
115 
til that moment it was the common kind. 
Without delay I returned to the place of 
capture, but the other was not there. Go¬ 
ing up stream I looked carefully through a 
small piece of swampy woods, and, fortu¬ 
nately, started and killed the other. They 
proved to be a pair. 
While in West Greenwich, R. I., May 2d, 
I heard a loud ringing song which I could 
not recall, and after a stealthy approach 
espied the songster about twenty feet from 
the ground on the branch of a sapling. At 
short intervals he lifted his head, giving 
his melodious song with as much vivacity 
as his cousin, the Golden Crowned Thrush. 
This was obtained and another heard, 
which, after about an hour’s chase was also 
secured. May, 1880, number three from 
this locality was added. All of these 
specimens were taken along rushing streams 
in which trout are to be found, coursing 
through heavily wooded rocky country. 
This is the most wary small bird I am 
acquainted with, and the past Spring at 
IMieatland,'^ Ind., and Mt. Carmel, Ill., en¬ 
abled me to get well acquainted with it, as 
it was plentiful throughout the bottoms. 
The song bears a resemblance to that of 
the Indigo Bird, and is as often delivered 
from high up in a tree as from the grotmd. 
The tipping motion is constantly noticea¬ 
ble as in the common species. The first 
nest was foimd May 22d, in a hollow be¬ 
side an upturned root by a brook. It con¬ 
tained five young just hatched. 
Aboitt June 1st, young were abundant. 
Their chip and motion was precisely like 
the old ones, and although half-fiedged 
and bob-tailed, they were hard to distin¬ 
guish from adults at a short distance. At 
this time, June 1st, when I had given up 
all hopes of finding a set of eggs, I was 
walking and pausing, looking carefully up 
into the foliage, when, happening to stop 
about fifteen feet from a large tree, a bird im¬ 
mediately fluttered from its base, toppling 
over first on one side, then on the other, 
stopping occasionally to kick spasmodical¬ 
ly. This performance was kej:)! up in a 
circular course for fully fifty yards, excel¬ 
ling any bird I ever saw in this manceuvre. 
At the end of this feint it flew on to a limb 
close by, giving its usual chip. From 
where I stood I could look into the nest 
and see the five eggs. The situation was 
in such dense and heavy growth of trees 
as to nearly stop undergrowth. The nest 
was jilaced in the niche caused by the tree 
slightly spreading towards the roots, and 
no attempt whatever was made toward 
concealment. The nest was a damp mat¬ 
ted mass of rotten leaves, and lined with 
fine roots and partlj' rotted stems of plants, 
and had to be dried in the oven before 
being fit to pack. The hollow was slight, 
and the eggs resemble rather small, very 
round and evenly spotted Chat’s eggs— 
those with large blotches and not thickly 
spotted.— F. T. .Teneks, Prov., R. I. 
Albinos.— Mr. J. Calhoun wu-ites from 
Illinois that a white Blue Jay came with 
others to feed on the soaked bread fed to 
his chickens. Noticing its peculiar color 
he secured it on Jan. 30th, and is having it 
carefully mounted. He writes that he 
also saw a Wliite Crow feeding on the car¬ 
cass of a dead horse, but was not able to 
seciue it. At a later date Mr. C. writes : 
“ We have been having fine, balmy weather 
for ten days. Most of the Spring birds 
are here. They came from one to two 
weeks earlier than last year. The Mead¬ 
ow Larks came Feb. 3d, Blue Birds 6th, 
Robins 9th. The Brant, Geese, and 
Ducks came by the hundreds, the latter 
on the 11th and 12th. The sportsmen re¬ 
port all kinds of Water Fowl very plenty 
on the jirairies, in the sloughs and ponds. 
I saw a great many Wild Pigeons on the 
3d inst. flying in all directions. William 
E. Hart and George Hunt killed an Owl 
with a steel trap to his leg the 5th inst. 
It measured four feet from tqi to tij) of 
wings, and was sjiotted. 
Speak a good word for the Ornithol¬ 
ogist to your correspondents. 
