CORRESPONDENCE 223 



quail and some other birds. I find birds and game 

 plenty in Florida but they do not come into hotel parlors 

 very often." On the habits of birds he writes : "I had 

 not long since a live Goshawk in my barn chamber. 

 When he was on the beams, if I threw a stick at him, 

 instead of stretching out his neck like a goose or duck, 

 he would draw down his head and throw up his shoulders 

 or wings." About the Golden Eagle which Dr. Wood 

 had reported having, he writes November 30, 1879 : ' ' You 

 got a prize in your Golden Eagle. They are now very 

 rare in anj^ part of New England. I have not heard of 

 one being taken here for some years. The last two were 

 caught in steel traps." 



" I cannot tell you much about the breeding of Rich- 

 ardson's Owl," Mr. Boardman writes September 5, 1879. 

 "They are not uncommon here late in fall and winter. 

 The Arcadian Owl breeds. I have never found the eggs, 

 but once I found the nest and young. The nest was in 

 a hole in a stub not more than five feet high. It was 

 the first of June and the birds were about half grown. 

 I did not count them, only took out two birds, but there 

 must have been five or six." 



One of the points upon which Dr. Wood wished 

 information was the period of incubation of the Osprey. 

 He was writing upon the subject and was searching 

 everything of value in ornithological literature to find 

 out, "in order to make my article perfectly reliable. 

 But there is not a work extant, so far as I can learn, 

 that gives the desired information. I have written to 

 oological collectors without avail." In answer to a let- 

 ter written to Dr. Brewer asking for the period of incu- 

 bation of our rapacia, he replied : "I am very sorry to 



