38 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



May 



since." The natural increase of years wantonly 

 destroyed in an afternoon ! 



Mr. Sam Lucas, who resides near Wyoming, 

 keeps a fur farm and miniature zoological garden. 

 Fishers, black foxes, rabbits, pheasants, etc., make 

 up most of his stock in trade. In addition, however, 

 he has two bald eagles brought when young from 

 Manitoulin Island, and two sand-hill cranes, one 

 of which, he states, has now been in captivity for 

 more than fifty years. The cranes are in an en- 

 closure where they stay voluntarily as their wings 

 are not clipped. On request from their master, they 

 throw back their heads and give the peculiar cry 

 so familiar to those who have seen them on the plains 

 of Saskatchewan. About the 20th of June one was 

 sitting on hen eggs in an excavation in the ground 

 which served for a nest. Her own infertile eggs, 

 Mr. Lucas had removed. The two seen were about 

 the size of turkey eggs, and were splashed with 

 brown markings on a dirty blue ground. 



N.B. On the 19th of July the writer saw a 

 ycllcw-bellied Sapsucker in the woods at Eugenia 

 Falls, Grey County, Ont. 



LEAST BITTERN NESTING AT LONDON, 



ONT. 



BOHEMIAN WAXWING AT OTTAWA. 



On February 15, 1917, late in the afternoon, I 

 saw a Bohemian Waxwing in a tree near my resi- 

 dence. It was surrounded by a group of curious 

 sparrows. It flew to another tree, and the sparrows 

 returned to their roof and held an animated dis- 

 cussion no doubt as to the identity of the stranger. 

 Finally two of the hottest debaters flew to the 

 second tree to make further observations of the 

 waxwing. They inspected him quietly until he 

 flew away, and then they returned and reported in 

 calmer tones to the other expectant sparrows. I 

 trust they agreed that it was "Bohemian" and not 

 "Cedar." On March 16, and again on March 27, 

 I saw a flock of Cedar Waxwings and three Bo- 

 hemian Waxwings with them. On the latter date 

 the Bohemian Waxwings sat quietly and nearly 

 hidden among the brown leaves of a small beech 

 at the Experimental Farm, while the Cedar-birds 

 flew about on the nearby shrubs and trees. These 

 are the first Bohemian Waxwings I have seen in 

 Ottawa during ten years. A. L. Gormley reports 

 one recently at Arnprior, (April 28, 1917, OTTAWA 

 Naturalist, XXXI, p. 32). 



Ralph E. DeLury. 



(Read Before the McIlwraith Ornithological 



Club.) 



At "The Pond", two miles south of London, 

 where many productive visits are made by the 

 members of the McIlwraith Ornithological Club, 

 in the seasons of migration, a red letter day oc- 

 curred on May 30, 1917, when a Least Bittern, 

 the first record for the pond, and the first local view 

 for any of the members, gave them a leisurely dis- 

 play of his colors and actions. 



Farther on, an unknown song was heard, which 

 proved to emanate from a Prairie Warbler, the first 

 County record, and a new bird for all the party. 



Nothing further was heard from either of these 

 birds in the spring of 1918, and apparently the visit 

 was not repeated. What was our surprise, then, 

 on the morning of August 2, 1918, while silently 

 skirting the edges of the pond in a canoe, to find 

 a fuzzy Least Bittern, perched on a dead twig, three 

 feet above the water. Eventually v/e found all four 

 of the young, as well as the two old birds, and 

 during that, and subsequent mornings, they were 

 invariably found roosting, where they seemed to 

 have passed the night, from one to four feet above 

 the water on the twigs of water-killed bushes, in 

 which we thought they should be very safe. The 

 young still had the whitish down of the nestling ad- 

 hering in places, that on top of the head being very 

 conspicuous. 



Generally speaking, we would miss finding the 

 parents, but would find the young, though occasion- 

 ally, only one or two of the latter would be seen. 

 For the benefit of those who have similar chances 

 it may be remarked that we began the morning with 

 a paddle around the pond at daylight, and found 

 the time very propitious. 



W. E. Saunders, London, Ont. 



NOTE. 



The Ontario Department of Agriculture has 

 recently published Bulletin No. 263, on "Mush- 

 rooms of Ontario", the author being Dr. R. E. 

 Stone. This publication of 24 pages emphasizes 

 the importance of using wild mushrooms as food, 

 particularly at the present time when a world short- 

 age of food is threatened. Illustrations are given of 

 twenty species. Descriptions of the various common 

 kinds are given in brief as well as other useful 

 information. Recipes for using mushrooms are also 

 included, as well as ^^jpep tjgfw^or the growing of 

 mushrooms. 



