100 



THE OOLOGIST 



opera glass examination, that the base 

 of the lower mandible In the young- 

 was flesh-colored or perhaps even yel- 

 lowish. 



X 43. Hermit Thrush, (Hylocichla 

 guttata pallasii). Fairly common. 

 Found a nest with four eggs on July 

 16th. 



X 44. Robin (Planesticus migrator- 

 ius). Common. One old nest was on 

 a beam inside an old shed, another, 

 containing an addled eggs, flat on a 

 beam in a well-house. 



X 45. Blue-bird, (Sialia sialis). Five 

 seen, Sharon, July 15th. 



Farmer's list mentioned a Black- 

 poll Warbler as probably seen, and 

 the Prairie Warbler and Wood Thrush 

 as common. The flrst two are doubt- 

 less erroneous, while the last I take to 

 be merely a slip of the pen for the 

 Hermit. 



SIDNEY F. BLAKE. 



SPRING AND WINTER BIRDS. 



The past winter was notable for the 

 great amount of snow. By February 

 the snow in the woods was forty to 

 fifty inches deep and lumbermen and 

 oil men were compelled to use snow- 

 shoes. We had a fine warm March, 

 but April and May and even early 

 June were cold months marked by 

 severe frosts and freezes. The mi- 

 grants, especially warblers, were very 

 late in arriving and when they did 

 come, it was in small numbers and 

 spread out. No flights. 



Several times during the severe win- 

 ter, lumbermen report seeing Ravens 

 in the heavy timber along the Warren- 

 Forest County line. Late in April I 

 saw three Ravens flying near here. 

 The flrst I have ever seen. Early in 

 May a pair were seen nearby. It is 

 not unlikely that they are located in 

 some of the large timber tracts and 

 when the hunting season opens this 



fall I may locate them. Not many 

 years ago Ravens were resident here, 

 but for some reason all seemed to 

 leave at once. In spite of the severe 

 weather, northern visitors were scarce. 

 There were only a few flocks of Amer- 

 ican Crossbills and Pine Finches. 

 Much less in number than usual. Snow 

 flakes were about in large flocks and 

 on the open places on the river were 

 a few Goldeneyes and American Mer- 

 gansers. These with an occasional 

 Northern Shrike made up the list of 

 visitors. A pair of Sparrow Hawks 

 stayed about the business part of town 

 and preyed on the English Sparrows. 

 Late in February, one of them was 

 killed by striking a wire while in pur- 

 suit of a sparrow. 



April 10th I saw a Holbell's Grebe 

 still in winter plumage. A quite rare 

 bird in this part of the state. 



During the last week in May I saw 

 several Olive-sided Flycatchers along 

 the river. May 25th I shot an Eagle 

 along the river. It was partly in 

 adult plumage and measured 7 feet 

 % inch in expanse. This is the first 

 eagle I have taken that was seven feet 

 in expanse. Others have always fal- 

 len short. R. B. SIMPSIN. 



A CORRECTION. 



Editor, The Oologist: — 



I wish to call your attention to two 

 errors in the last issue of THE OOLO- 

 GIST. My picture which you repro- 

 duced in that issue as that of the 

 Swamp Sparrow, is instead the nest 

 of a Meadow Lark as described in 

 the article which I sent you at the 

 time. The other error is of no con- 

 sequence — you stated that Sayre was 

 in the vicinity of Philadelphia, which 

 it is not. Philadelphia is on the south- 

 ern boundry line of the state, while 

 Sayre is on the northern boundry, 

 about 225 miles distant. 



H E. BISHOP. 



