1902] Correspondence. 233 



bird also sits very close on her nest, and will allow herself to be 

 almost trodden upon or caught within her hut-like nest before she 

 leaves her charge. The set of eggs usually numbers four, occa- 

 sionally five; these are of a whitish hue, wreathed and dotted, 

 mostly on the larger end, wilh spots of brownish or flesh color. 

 Like most other small birds, this species is often imposed upon by 

 the cow-bird. If her first set of eggs is removed she nests again, 

 but only one brood is raised in the season. The oven-bird arrives 

 in this vicinity about the first week of May, and its song continues 

 about eight weeks. When, on a June day, as I wander in the 

 wooded lands and hear the song, or see the nest of this bird, my 

 memory recalls my boyhood days and early pioneer rambles in 

 what was then a portion of the backwoods of Western Canada; 

 and now, as then, I note that this species seems disposed to locate 

 its nesting place by the side of the cow-path, and among low 

 underwood. 



NOTE ON BROOD -CARE IN REPTILES. 

 To the Editor of The Ottawa Naturalist. 



Dear Sir, — In an interesting note appearing in the December 

 number of the Ottawa Naturalist on the oviposition of the Mud 

 Turtle, the writer quotes an observant friend as saying that 

 " though he never saw a young turtle come out of a nest, his 

 belief is that the mother watches the nest, and, when the young 

 are hatched, either oulls the top off the nest or puts down her 

 claws and lifts the little ones out." Natural History consists not 

 of beliefs but of carefully ascertained facts. As nobody has ever 

 observed any turtle trouble itself about its eggs once they have 

 been laid and covered up, one must be excused for hesitating to 

 share this "belief." The brood-care so well developed in birds, 

 the mammals, and some of the highest fishes (teleosts), is a much 

 simpler thing in the reptile. There is very little evidence of any 

 reptilian interest in the young, and what evidence there is relates 

 so far as I know, to the snake and crocodile only. Any observa- 

 tions of such an instinct in the turtle would be very interesting. 



C. GUILLET. 



