THE OOLOGIST 



49 



ed a Lark from a nest containing four 

 slightly incubated eggs. This was 

 about eight miles Northwest of town. 

 This nest was built much like the first 

 nest, being at the base of a short tuft 

 of grass. 



March 29, 1909 I found a nest near 

 the top of the same ridge as three 

 young were found April 4, 1907. It 

 contained three young birds well 

 grown. 



All of the nests which I have found 

 were in high ridges, and in most cases, 

 were found by watching the birds go 

 to the nests. SAM DICKEY. 



An English Sparrow Tragedy. 



It is well known that the Bronzed 

 Grackle occasionally varies his diet 

 by the addition of eggs and nestlings, 

 to the bill of fare, but I had never 

 heard of their attacking larger birds. 

 Therefore the following incident which 

 came under my observation last 

 Spring, was somewhat of a surprise. 

 Several of these birds spend the sum- 

 mer in the Boston Public Gardens and 

 may be seen walking about ui)on the 

 lawn. 



While passing through the garden 

 May 29th I noticed several English 

 Sparrows on the ground under a tree. 

 Among them was a young bird well 

 grown and practically fully feathered. 

 He was, in fact, as large as any of 

 the adults, but showed his age by his 

 constant crying for food accompanied 

 by a fluttering of the wings. .Just at 

 this moment a Grackle flew down be- 

 side this group. He caught the young 

 sparrow roughly by the neck, bit 

 sharply two or three times, then drop- 

 ped it to the ground and hammered it 

 fiercely on the head. 



By this time he was besieged by a 

 screaming mob of adult Sparrows. 

 When the young bird was dead, he 

 took it by the neck and flew to a near- 

 by tree. It is against the rules to 



walk across the lawns and flower 

 beds, so I was obliged to follow the 

 paths to reach the tree where the 

 Grackle had perched — a roundabout 

 way which took sometime. 

 As I drew near the tree, the Grackle 

 flew out and I saw that the young bird 

 had disappeared. I searched carefully 

 on the lawn under the tree, without 

 finding any trace of the sparrow, and 

 as the Grackle was not carrying it 

 when he left the tree, it seems proba- 

 ble that he had eaten it entire. 



F. SEYMOUR HERSEY. 



Finding White Throated Swifts' Nests. 



Dui'ing the lattei' part of March, 

 1909, in the cliffs that are a mile East 

 of Shandon, California, I noticed about 

 a dozen of the rare White-throated 

 Swifts, flying around the cliffs. They 

 would dart around a while, and then 

 fly into a crevice or hole in the cliff. 



These Swifts are very active and 

 fly with extreme rapidity. They fly 

 high; then when coming down, make 

 the air '"hum." Their vocalism is 

 a loud shrill twitter uttered chiefly 

 while on the wing. 



I had good luck in watching these 

 graceful birds during March, April 

 and May. and made some study of 

 their habits in the cliffs near my 

 home, but owing to the size of the 

 cliffs, it was almost impossible to get 

 up to some of the crevices and holes 

 they made their nests in. 



But one crevice could be easily 

 reached by driving in four harrow 

 teeth, which I had done in March in 

 l)ulling out an old nest. Again in May 

 I went u]) to the crevice, and to my 

 surprise when I put my hand in the 

 crevice, out came the two Swifts. I 

 made a search then to find the nest, 

 only to find a nest about half done. I 

 then watched the birds and one other 

 flew into a hole about thirty feet 

 above, which could be reached with a 



