Part 23

Breeding schedule.--Eggs are laid from May to August.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 5 or 6 eggs; the range is from 3 to 10 (Welter, 1935).

Nests are woven of broad-bladed grasses, usually no farther than two feet from water or mud, suspended in vertical plant stalks or branches in marshes.

=Short-billed Marsh Wren=: Cistothorus platensis stellaris (Nauman).--This rare and irregular summer resident in northeastern Kansas occurs in wet meadowland. Breeding records are available from Douglas and Coffey counties. Temporal occurrence in the State is at least from April 29 to October 25; early dates are most likely of transients.

Breeding schedule.--Eggs are laid in late July and August.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 6 or 7 eggs.

Nests are woven of plant fibers and placed in vertically-running stalks and stems of grasses and short, woody vegetation, within two feet of the ground.

=Rock Wren=: Salpinctes obsoletus obsoletus (Say).--This species is a common summer resident in western Kansas, in open, rocky country. Specimens taken in the breeding season and actual nests found come from west of stations in Decatur, Trego, and Comanche counties. Dates of occurrence are from April 2 to October 25. Autumnal, postbreeding movement brings the species east at least to Cloud County (October 7, 8, and 12) and Douglas County (October 25).

Breeding schedule.--Sixteen records of breeding span the period May 11 to July 20; the modal date for egg-laying is June 15.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 5 eggs (4.6, 3-7; 5).

Nests are placed in holes in rocks, occasionally in rodent burrows, from ground level to 80 feet high on faces of cliffs, but there averaging about 20 feet.

=Northern Mockingbird=: Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus).--This is a common resident in parkland and brushy savannah throughout Kansas. M. p. polyglottos (Linnaeus) occurs in the east, and M. p. leucopterus (Vigors) in the west; a broad zone of intergradation exists between the two. Most specimens from Kansas are of intermediate morphology.

Breeding schedule.--Sixty-nine records of breeding span the period April 21 to July 31 (Fig. 7); the modal date for first clutches is June 5, but is weakly indicated in the histogram (Fig. 7).

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 3 eggs (3.5, 3-5; 27). Size of clutch does not vary seasonally or geographically in the present sample.

Nests are placed about four feet high (two to 10 feet) in osage orange, red cedar, mulberry, scotch pine, catalpa, cottonwood, rose, and arbor vitae.

=Catbird=: Dumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus).--This is a common summer resident in the eastern half of Kansas, but is local in the west, in and near woodland edge and second-growth. First dates of arrival in spring are from April 25 to May 14 (the median is May 6), and last dates of autumnal occurrence are between September 20 and November 16 (the median is September 26).

Breeding schedule.--Seventy-seven records of breeding span the period May 11 to July 31 (Fig. 7); the modal date for egg-laying is May 25, and 57 per cent of all clutches are laid from May 21 to June 10.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 4 eggs (3.3, 2-5; 43). Clutches laid between May 11 and June 10 tend to be of 4 eggs (3.5, 2-5; 27), and clutches laid between June 11 and July 31 tend to be of 3 eggs (2.9, 2-4; 16).

Nests are placed about four feet high in shrubs (rose, lilac, plum, elderberry) and about seven feet high in trees (red cedar, honey locust, willow, elm, apple, and in vines in such trees).

=Brown Thrasher=: Toxostoma rufum (Linnaeus).--This is a common summer resident in woodland understory, edge, and second-growth. T. r. rufum (Linnaeus) occurs in eastern Kansas, to the western edge of the Flint Hills, and T. r. longicauda Baird occurs west of stations in Decatur, Lane, and Meade counties; the intervening populations are of intermediate morphologic character. Some individuals overwinter in Kansas, but most are regular migrants and summer residents, arriving in spring from April 1 to April 25 (the median is April 19), and departing in autumn between September 19 and October 13 (the median is September 28).

Breeding schedule.--The 237 records of breeding span the period May 1 to July 20 (Fig. 7); the modal date for egg-laying is May 15, and one-third of all eggs are laid in the period May 11 to 20.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 4 eggs, ranging from 2 to 5. Seasonal variation and mean values are shown in Table 15.

Nests are placed about four feet high (ranging from 1-2/3 to 15 feet) in osage orange, elm, ornamental evergreens, gooseberry, barberry, honey locust, cottonwood, red cedar, rose, plum, honeysuckle, spirea, arbor vitae, willow, oak, apple, dogwood, and maple.

TABLE 15.--SEASONAL VARIATION IN CLUTCH-SIZE OF THE BROWN THRASHER

============+==================+=================== TIME | Mean clutch-size | Number of records ------------+------------------+------------------- May 1-10 | 3.3 | 15 May 10-20 | 3.9 | 38 May 21-31 | 4.1 | 13 June 1-10 | 3.5 | 13 June 11-20 | 3.5 | 12 June 21-30 | 3.4 | 9 July 1-10 | 3 | 1 July 11-20 | 3 | 1 All: | 3.63 | 102 ------------+------------------+-------------------

=Robin=: Turdus migratorius migratorius Linnaeus.--This summer resident is common in the east, and is locally common in the west. Some individuals, usually in small groups, can be seen throughout the winter in eastern Kansas, and their presence makes it difficult to document dates of arrival and departure of the strictly summer resident birds; these can be said to arrive in March and to leave in October, but these indications are the barest approximations.

Breeding schedule.--The 334 records of breeding span the period April 1 to July 20 (Fig. 7); the modal date of laying of first clutches is April 25, but subsequent peaks are indistinct. Nearly half of all eggs are laid in the period April 11 to 30.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 3 eggs (3.6, 3-6; 57). Clutches laid prior to May 10 average 3.6 eggs (3-6; 47), and those laid subsequent to May 10 average 3.5 eggs (3-4; 10).