Notes from Field and Study 



319 



in a tall box elder tree near the house, 

 where they were eating seeds. Soon some 

 of them flew to the ground and to neigh- 

 boring trees. Just then a Bohemian Wax- 

 wing was seen at the honeysuckle berries 

 at the garden gate; then another and 

 another, and still others, until the num- 

 ber was seven. The male Grosbeaks 

 were perfect in their dress and delightful 

 to see, but the Waxwings were the height 

 of perfection in dress, and were the most 

 beautiful we had ever seen. They hob- 

 nobbed with the Grosbeaks, and were 

 almost as friendly with them as they are 

 with each other. For a few minutes three 

 or four of each were on our neighbor's 

 kitchen roof in a space not more than ten 

 feet square. They seemed to find some- 

 thing to eat there, and it is possible they 

 did find pieces of suet and nuts that were 

 tucked away in the cracks by Nuthatches, 

 from our feeding-table. The Grosbeaks 

 have been back many times since, and 

 seem to have decided to spend the winter 

 in our city, but the Waxwings have not 

 again been seen at our place, although I 

 have seen them in other parts of the city. 

 Heretofore we have seen only one or two 

 of these beautiful Waxwings at a time, and 

 then not every winter. 



A day or two prevdous to this, a Tufted 

 Titmouse had made hasty and short visits 

 to our nut-stick and suet-baskets. This 

 food is not more than ten feet from our 

 living-room window, but he did not seem 

 shy even when we were at the window. 

 Some days we would not see him at all, 

 and we wondered why; for we knew the 

 Chickadees, Woodpeckers, and Nut- 

 hatches were there every hour or oftener 

 during daylight, and the Titmouse must 

 surely eat as often and as much as a 

 Chickadee. One day I chanced to put out 

 some hemp seeds I had kept for two or three 

 years, in case of severe spring snowstorms 

 during migration. Since that day our 

 Tufted Titmouse has been our most 

 faithful 'star boarder.' His steel-gray 

 coat, erect, proud crest, pitch-black 

 blinking eye, and rich brown sides dis- 

 tinguish him. 



I have, nowhere, found any account of a 



Titmouse having been observed anywhere 

 in Minnesota before. We have had 30°- 

 below-zero weather here this winter, but he 

 seems as happy on those days as on any 

 other, although his visits to the hemp-hole 

 are not so frequent. 



Our other steady boarders consist of 

 five Chickadees, four or six White-breasted 

 Nuthatches, four Downy and four or five 

 Hairy Woodpeckers, and one or two Brown 

 Creepers. This necessitates a number of 

 plates at the table, as they never eat, two 

 at a time, at the same plate. My main 

 table is a partly decayed basswood log, 

 with three old Woodpecker holes near 

 one end. The log is five feet long and 

 about seven or eight inches in diameter. 

 This I brought home with me on one of 

 my return trips from the country. It is 

 suspended horizontally from a limb of a 

 box elder tree that conveniently projects 

 at the right angle. On the underside of 

 the log near either end are two pieces of 

 galvanized meshed wire, six by eight 

 inches in size. They are my suet-baskets, 

 upon which a slice of suet of convenient 

 size and thickness is placed, and the log 

 on top of this. My object in pla'cmg the 

 baskets under the log is to keep the House 

 Sparrows from eating it or annoying 

 the other birds while they eat. In the 

 holes in the log I put nuts and hemp seeds 

 every morning or late at night. The 

 wires by which the log is suspended are 

 about five feet long. This gives the wind 

 a good chance to swing the log back and 

 forth, much to the delight of the feeders. 

 The distance from the ground to the log 

 is about four and one-half feet — quite 

 safe from cats. Two feet away on the 

 tree trunk I have another suet-basket and 

 also a nut-stick, and for a reserve table a 

 nut-stick at the window. This gives room 

 for seven boarders to eat at the same time 

 when all the plates are filled. — G. H. 

 LuEDTKE, M.D., Fairmont, Minn. 



A Golden Eagle in Virginia 



On November 8, 1915, a Golden Eagle 

 was captured on our farm near Trout- 

 ville, Virginia, in the foot-hills of the 



