274 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Waxwings in the North. 



A flock of cedar waxwings is spend- 

 ing the winter in Watertown, New 

 York. On December 3rd I counted 

 twenty-rive of these birds in and about 

 a mountain ash tree which was loaded 

 with berries. On the same day I saw 

 and heard a purple finch, and it is not 

 unlikely there are more of these finches 

 in the city. At this season they arc 

 gregarious. 



Why Do Black Ducks Avoid Decoys? 



Watertown, New \ ork. 



Dear Mr. Sawyer : — 



Through The Guide to Nature I 

 would like to have explained the hab- 

 its of our wild black ducks, and espe- 

 cially why they will not decoy as other 

 ducks will. 



Respectfully yours, 



Archie Kirkland. 



In its habits the black or dusky 

 is a typical duck of the sub-family of 

 river ducks, which includes the mal- 

 lard, teal, pintail, shoveler and so on. 

 The members of this sub-family may 

 be recognized by the absence of a web 

 on the hind toe, a characteristic no 

 doubt related to their feeding habits, 

 for their food is obtained in shallow 

 water by tipping or dabbling, and not 

 by diving to a depth. That habit is 

 probably at the bottom of the seeming 

 avoidance of decoys, which are usually 

 placed in fairly deep or at least open 

 water where black ducks would not 

 as a rule go to feed. They like to feed 

 in water a few inches deep among the 

 close growing wild rice and other 

 water plants. They are fond of asso- 

 ciating with their kind, and I have not 

 the slightest doubt that black ducks 

 would decoy about as readily as any 

 other river duck to suitable decoys in 

 their ordinary feeding- grounds, if 

 placed so as to be readily seen. 



Birds are Particular as to Sizes. 



Greenwich, Connecticut. 

 To the Editor:— 



I want to take exception to some- 

 thing which Mr. Ladd stated in the 

 December issue of your magazine; 

 namely, that the entrances to the mar- 

 tin house are one and seven-eighths 

 inches in diameter. This is an error 

 and should be corrected at once. It 

 should read one and five-eighths inches 



with another hole directly above of one- 

 half inch to admit light. The martin 

 exactly fits the one and five-eighths 

 inch hole but unless the other one-half 

 inch hole is directly above or at the 

 side, he will not enter, due to the fact 

 that it is dark. A very peculiar point 

 is that the starling will enter a one 

 and four-fifths inch hole but not one 

 and five-eighths inches. This is cutting 

 things very fine. The same applies 

 to wren houses. Anything from seven- 

 eighths of an inch to one and one-six- 

 teenth inches will admit a wren, any- 

 thing over that will admit a sparrow. 



I want to give credit for the above 

 information in regard to martins to 

 Mr. C. H. Townsend whose article re- 

 ferring to the same can be found in 

 "Bird-Lore." The same error was 

 made in regard to the size in that pub- 

 lication and Mr. Townsend told me 

 himself that he greatly regretted the 

 error. It will be corrected in the next 

 issue of "Bird-Lore." 



Very truly yours, 

 Raymond B. Thompson. 



The Ways of the Crested Flycatcher. 



Hillsboro, Ohio. 

 To the Editor : — ■ 



The crested flycatchers' arrival at 

 their summer home on the fifteenth of 

 May was soon made known by their 

 loud chatter as they flitted among the 

 trees on the lawn. They could not 

 escape the notice of the most unob- 

 servant, they were so active, especially 

 in the early morning, in the evening 

 and on rainy days. The birds chased 

 one another among the dense branches 

 of the maples, but a centrally located 

 ash was the favorite. There they 

 loitered or whiled away the time in 

 chattering and in catching flying in- 

 sects. Llaving for several years ob- 

 served the movements of a pair with- 

 out discovering their nesting place, 

 their greatest secret, what was my sur- 

 prise when T discovered that they had 

 appropriated a recently made bird box 

 set ten feet from the ground in an ash 

 tree. On June twenty-fourth I heard 

 the piercing cry of the young. Inves- 

 tigation revealed five small birds in a 

 nest composed of grasses, feathers and 

 three small pieces of snake skin. At 

 this time the young birds were prob- 

 ably three or four days old. The 



