I lO 



Bird -Lore 



Swallow's Nest on Board Boat 

 Wliilc at Lake George, New York, in 

 tlie summer of 1900, a curiously placed nest 

 was brought to my notice. I had often 

 heard of birds building in strange places 

 about buildings; but I had never heard of 

 them nesting on a steamer tliat traversed 

 daily so large a body of water as Lake 

 George. Upon inquiring, I found out that, 

 since the Horicon had been in commission 

 that season, large numbers of Swallows had 

 been seen hovering about the boat, especially 

 toward evening after her arrival at Cald- 

 well. A few days afterward some boys, 

 while in bathing off the railroad wharf, 

 discovered a nest beneath one of the guard- 

 rails of the Horicon. Upon examination, 

 they found it to be made of mud and to 

 contain three young birds, which had 

 recently broken from their shells. Every 

 da}", for some time, on tlie arrival of tlie 

 boat at her pier, the old birds were seen 

 bringing food to their young, which con- 

 tinued their trips of eighty miles daily, 

 until they were able to fly. 



Captain Harris, of the Horicon, in- 

 formed me that this nesting on board his 

 boat was not an unusual nor new occur- 

 rence. He said that usually every year, 

 before the boat was in use, great numbers 

 of Swallows gathered on and about his 

 steamer, and that he had known, previ- 

 ously, of other nests similarly placet!. I 

 was unable to gather a full description of 

 the birds, but was told that they were the 

 kind so commonly seen about farm build- 

 ings. It may be supposed, although it 

 was not authoritatively stated, that the 

 parent birds must have followed the 

 steamer throughout the day. When sit- 

 ting, one bird of course had to be upon 

 the nest, and at the same time the other, 

 without doubt, followed the boat. After 

 hatching the youngsters had to be fed at 

 short intervals through the day, thus prov- 

 ing that the old birds, with their brood, 

 completed a course of eighty miles tlaily, 

 either upon the wing or nest. — Burton 

 N. Gates, fVorcesier, Mass. 



[Should any of our readers learn of tlie 

 return of these birds, we trust tliey will 

 report to us.] 



The Barred Owl in Bronx Park 



For nearly two years tliere has lived in 

 the Hemlock Grove a Barred Owl, or 

 rather a pair of them, and thougli neither 

 of them were often seen, yet at morning 

 and early evening their weird hoots were 

 familiar and delightful to us all. Early in 

 February, an old dead hemlock was cut 

 down, and the Owl's nest was discovered to 

 be in it, much to our regret, for it might 

 have been spared. During the next snow- 

 storm an Owl was reported to have been 

 seen perching low down in an old tree, and 

 after the next storm it was found on the 

 ground too feeble to Hy. It was brought 

 into the museum, and found to be very 

 thin and sick, for while trying to feed it 

 with finely chopped raw meat, it was dis- 

 covered that it had two large ulcers in its 

 throat, which prevented its swallowing, and 

 that it was slowly starving to death. It 

 diet! after ineffectual attempts at curing it 

 by swabbing its throat with kerosene, and 

 it seems likely that it had caught "//z^ roup" 

 from some chicken, stolen from our neigh- 

 bors' poultry yards. The symptoms were 

 pronounced to be the same, extreme lassi- 

 tude and indifference, sitting with its head 

 down, running at the mouth, an inability 

 to swallow. Its mate has been seen since 

 near the place where their nest used to be. 

 — Elizabeth G. Britton, AVxu York 

 Botanical Garden, Bronx Park. 



On the seventh of December, at the home 

 of Mrs. Edward Robins in Philadelphia, 

 the Spencer L. Baird Ornithological Club 

 was organized, its object being the study 

 and advancement of ornithology. 



The following officers were elected : Presi- 

 dent. Miss E. W. Fisher; Secretary and 

 Treasurer, Miss M. P. Nicholson. Regular 

 meetings of the club are held twice a month 

 from November to April, consisting of a busi- 

 ness and a scientific session, each member 

 being responsible for two papers annually. 



During the winter the club has had the 

 pleasure of listening to addresses from Dr. 

 Charles C. Abbott and Mr. Witmer Stone, 

 and hopes to hear papers in the future from 

 otiier prominent ornithologists. — Mary 

 Parker Nicholson, Secretary. 



