Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-05-28
EARLY NESTS
BY SAMUEL scovILLE, Jr.


year7
May is the great month to learn the birds.
Now comes June, the nesting month. In every
held and patch OF woods and along every road,
well into July YOU can find nests on every
Every time you fnd one you i will feel as Il
you had suddenly discovered some buried
the world than a bird s-nesting waik2oniy
don't take the eggs. Birds have hard enough
and cats and hawks and bluejays and crows
and blacksnakes and cowhirds without having
more fun. as we'll as more scentihc. to make
record Of each TEST you find and TO write
eggs hatch and when the Young birds are able
to ny rather than to destroy the whole family
Already most Of the early birds are nesting.
I found two wood-dove nests in April and a
friend OF mine saw one which was, drittodi
oyer two feet @ deep with SLOW during the April
melted off the nest and never stirred of It for
nests on my list. on MA May 10 fS three S'"S Of us
found nest In crimson rambler vine with
He had kicked on half the Shell and was vas trying
70 get his head and shoulders out of the other
very vide which eXprcsscd @ gpSttude Gt III in % robin
langusge ON that same cay, in an old tree
that spot had always heard Carolina. wren
sing its loud vince -oodle, whee-oodle," ond
could not ind tho nest. Today as climbed
over the wall 1 nearly stepped. on 1t. The
aron bush and followed out Of a bank of
lined with lorg horsehairs and was about ive
Inches hr6s nssP deep Il LOCKED something Ike an oven
hanging roof
ON that same day we found a bluejay's nest
siSS saSHs lS feet nP The nest vas made of
e spsSked fess sFs sno Il seemed
@ TS6 Sr p5sG # or 0Rea e Aes ike
shadow without q sound, although usually It
i Is the i noissst Of all the birds. When It got
hold in any longer and gave tremendous
or May Il found a brown thrashers nest
VII, With Two eggs IN It near my house The nest
aud the eggs were white thckIy speekled with
reddish brown. The nest was however. de-
o. my peighbors' house cats which spend their
nishts In catching birds on their nests. In
song -sparrow's nest made OF grass with one
osea " %sed Ss sG bs eodd As
Sat-eurlew act under which all cats would
n H., ,hs garden hangs a swinging box with With
on NAV there Hs' We're Ell little B9ebirds in i.
from cats 'S and q" IRON from ' English T sParrows On
April - under the caves OF a sprnghouse !
and ned wtS S' q9Wn and 9 aHd
containiaE four pure white eggs. The phoebe.
Strd5.S..t, friend ibid nc nc g Of woman %sS VIZ
accordingly got a large stuffed cat and nailed
him on q nearby limb. The robins gave up
that nest at once, Later on she tried the
ing on the side OF her porch and nailed the
cat there and went away for week. When
she came hack she found that the phoebes
had built their nest against the head OF the
cat
In previous article wrote about a flicker
which. with great presence of mind, bored
h 10 and made it's nest under sign which
said No shooting here" Not long after
found that nest l passing a telegraph
pole and heard a tapping which seemed to
come from the other side of the pole. walked
around and around. but could not find who
was making the noise Finally, from knot
hole long beak out and l recognized
Mrs. Flicker. who was inside the pole hollow
ing OFT her nest.
on May 20 in a tussock at the edge of a
Bwampy pasture found grass nest lined
with hair. In IT. were four large, blush white
black marks which looked like Arabic writing.
This the nest OF the red-winged black
bird on MAY % found another without
any eggs. and Just beside IL a bird flew uE.
showing white tail-feathers. There in the long
grass was dome shaped nest made of dried
grass with an entrance on the side and which
contained five large white eggs, four OF which
were covered with fine brown specks. Tho
NTH white egg with coarse brown spots
H. II was the nest Of the meadow-larh,
always a hard nest to flnd and usually found
by accident, as this one was. This Is the last
nest which have found to date. My first ono
that of a pair of whtte-breasted nut
matches, who made their nest in hole in
would see a little black head with white
cheeks peering out Of the hole, This was
Mother Nut-hatch, Father Sut-hatch spent
his time in bringing her various appetizins
bugs.
Don't forget to keep nest record along
with YOUR bird lists,