48 



THE OOLOGIST 



was very much surprised to find it 

 was a lizard about six inches long. 

 How the parent bird managed to feed 

 this lizard to the young I do not know, 

 unless she tore it into bits with her 

 strong beak. The Trogon usually 

 feeds on berries and insects, prefer- 

 ring the former which it takes on the 

 wing flying to a perch to eat them; so 

 it is curious to find it feeding its 

 young on lizards. 



The parent was fierce while I was 

 at the nest, attacking me with her 

 bill, drawing blood from my hand. 



I visited the nest ten days later, 

 finding one of the young alive; the 

 other two were eaten by magots. The 

 Trogon is one of the most difficult 

 birds of Cuba, if not the most difficult 

 to procure in perfect condition as its 

 feathers fall out very easily while 

 handling, or touching any branches or 

 limbs while falling upon being shot. 

 In this it is even more delicate than 

 the Quail Dove, which are extremely 

 so. 



This Trogon, as well as the bird re- 

 ferred to by Mr. Read as the Isle of 

 Pines Tanager and the Ruddy Quail 

 Dove, are found in Cuba; the latter is 

 known to the natives as "perdiz" pro- 

 nounced "perdeeth," meaning Par- 

 tridge, and is known in our end of 

 Cuba (the east end) as Torito, while 

 in the Western end of the island it is 

 commonly called "Boneys." The 

 name Torito meaning a small bull, is 

 given the bird by the natives here be- 

 cause its note which resembles some- 

 what the bellowing of a bull when 

 heard from a distance, but of course 

 much lower. This note is very deceiv- 

 ing as one may be very close to the 

 bird and nevertheless be unable to lo- 

 cate the exact place the sound comes 

 from. 



The bird we call Perdiz is the Blue- 

 headed Quail dove. 



CHARLES T. RAMSDEN. 



Prairie Horned Lark. 



The first nest of the Prairie Horned 

 Lark that I ever saw was found March 

 24, 1907. A friend and I were out for 

 a walk on a high ridge, one mile South- 

 west of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. 

 As we came near to a knob on the 

 ridge I mentioned it as a likely place 

 for a Lark's nest. I had always seen 

 them in such places. When we were a 

 short distance below the top of the 

 knob, I saw a Lark fly up not far away. 

 Hurrying to the place I found a nest 

 containing three eggs. The nest was 

 composed of dry grass and wool, plac- 

 ed in a depression flush with the sur- 

 face, and was beside a short tuft of 

 grass. 



Two days later, March 26th, I found 

 a second nest, on a ridge two miles 

 North of town. It was on a level, be- 

 low a high knob, and on the East side 

 of the hill. It contained four eggs, 

 heavily incubated and larger than the 

 first eggs found. 



April 1st I found a nest just being 

 built on a high ridge, and as in the 

 others, a short distance below a knob. 

 I returned April 7th and it contained 

 five fresh eggs. 



April 4th I found a nest containing 

 three small young, two miles West of 

 town, on a hillside a short distance be- 

 low a knob. It was built beside a short 

 tuft of grass. 



March 21st, 1908, I found a nest con- 

 taining three eggs on the same ridge 

 as 1-5 was found laist year. ' I left it 

 and on returning two days later found 

 only two eggs in it. They were heavi- 

 ly incubated. 



On my way home I found another 

 nest containing two heavily incubated 

 eggs, near the top of a high knOb and 

 about one-half mile from the first. 

 The bird was flushed. 



March 30, 1908, while I was walking 

 on a high hillside below a knob I flush- 



