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Some Unusual Records 
Chicago, November 9, 1948. 
Editor, Illinois Audubon Bulletin: 
For whatever it may be worth, we have the following to report for 
your Illinois Audubon record. We consider this an unusually good year 
for sight records, and listed below are some which we consider rare birds 
for this area that we have had the pleasure of seeing -and adding to this 
year’s list: 
Glaucus Gull (2 adults) Snowy Egret (3) 
Hudsonian Curlew (2) Desert Sparrow 
Marbled Godwit Lark Sparrow (2) 
Buff-breasted Sandpiper Parasitic Jaeger (3) 
Worm-eating Warbler 
We spent a great deal of our birding time studying nesting habits 
of the Chicago area birds, and among the uncommon ones observed 
nesting was the Yellow-breasted Chat, which was found in the Palos Forest 
Preserve, and in the same vicinity the Orchard Oriole nested. We later 
saw at least three immatures being fed by the parent Orioles. We also 
found evidence that the Bell’s Vireo was nesting in this area. 
Our most surprising and interesting nesting study was of the Mock- 
ingbird. In the early spring we.had seen one Mockingbird at Orland 
and heard of more than one having been seen southwest of Joliet near 
the junction of U. S. Highways 66 and 6. We searched this area and 
were successful in seeing two or more Mockers busy feeding. We were 
delighted when one of these birds perched on the fence near the car and 
then proceeded to disappear into a small gooseberry bush nearby. After 
a while the bird left and investigation disclosed that the bush contained 
a nest with four eggs therein. The following weekend the eggs were 
intact, but two weeks later they were gone. Our disapointment in finding 
the nest empty and apparently abandoned was somewhat alleviated by 
discovering a pair of the birds going to and from a tree inside a farmer’s 
pasture. Our repeated visits strengthened our belief that there was a nest 
in this particular tree. Several weeks later our hopes were fulfilled in 
finding a juvenile perched on the same fence as mentioned above, begging 
for food. The adult birds’ actions made it apparent they were feeding 
more than one offspring. We were unable, however, to prove this assump- 
tion. Who knows, perhaps this is a start of a colony of these beautiful 
and interesting birds in our area. 
Very respectfully, 
AL AND LEE CAMPBELL 
ft FI Ft 
IN AN ORCHARD of apple trees some of the fruit is wormy, some scabbed, 
some dwarfed, from one cause and another; but Nature approves of the 
worm, and of the fungus that makes the scab, and of the aphid that makes 
the dwarf, just as sincerely as she approves of the perfect fruit. She holds 
the stakes of both sides; she wins, whoever loses.—John Burroughs. 
