THE OOLOGIST. 



the house, a perfect mouse in every 

 way but the head, which resembles 

 a mole only nose is longer and ears 

 down on the neck. It is small. I 

 have mounted it. 



O. M. Greenwood. 



L. C— Oneida Co., X. Y. 

 The Bi-colored and Tri-colored 

 Blackbirds do not occur in New York 

 State. Your specimen must have 

 been the common Redwing. They 

 vary much in the shoulder markings. 

 —Ed. 



New Bedford, Mass. 

 To the Editor of the Oologist." 



Dear Sir: — 



A week or so ago the writer thought 

 he would visit the woods and place 

 a birch stub with a hole in it on a 

 tree so that the chickadees might 

 use it if they saw fit and so that I 

 could study their ways and watch 

 them bring up their little family. To- 

 day I went to ascertain if they had 

 favored me with a visit and found to 

 my great delight that Mrs. Chicka- 

 dee was at home and had four eggs. 

 Upon turning around to return; not 

 more than 10 feet away, up flew a 

 Wocdcock nearly under my feet and 

 looking in the ground I discovered 

 the nest with four pure white eggs 

 not a spot on them except a few 

 slight stains fro mthe damp leaves 

 (as we have had so much rain.) Now 

 all the authorities that I have seen 

 say the eggs are buff with brownish 

 or lavender spots and are hard to 

 find as they are nearly the color of 

 the leaves. These eggs being so 

 white I had no difficulty whatever in 

 seeing them after the bird flew off. 

 The eggs and nest are now in my 

 collection and are prized by me as 

 they are the first set of Woodcocks 

 that I ever found. 



Will you kindly inform me if it is 

 unusual for them to be immaculate? 



There are a trifle larger than Screech 

 Owl's but not much, and are some- 

 what pointed like Bob-white. Nest 

 was made close to a birch stick ly- 

 ing on the ground. 



Henry P. Burt. 

 This is the first immaculate. Al- 

 bino set of Woodcock I have seen 

 recorded. — Ed. 



Luzerne Co., Pa. 

 Are sets of .5 of Prairie Horned 

 Lark rare? State. 



E. W. C. 

 Ans.— No, quite common. — Ed. 



THE MOURNING DOVE, 



(Zenaidura macroura.) 



With the exception of the Passen- 

 ger Pigeon which is now almost ex- 

 tinct this is the only member of this 

 family that we have in the east, 

 north of the Gulf and South Atlan- 

 tic states. At all seasons it is gre- 

 garious but never in such large 

 flocks as the far famed pigeons of 

 old. This beautiful yet dull colored 

 bird arrives early in March although 

 my earliest records about Toledo is 

 March 25. In this state (Ohio) the 

 season for hunting Doves opens Sep- 

 tember 1, which is too early, for 

 while passing through a clump of 

 arbor-vitae trees on September 7, 

 1905 I thought that I would look at 

 a certain nest of the Dove that I had 

 found in April; immagine my sur- 

 prise to find it occopied by two young 

 and yet it was a week after the sea- 

 son had opened. From the farmer's 

 point of view the Mourning Dove is 

 one of the most useful of all the 

 birds on the farm. It feeds a great 

 deal upon weed seeds such as pig- 

 eon grass, rag weed, etc. According 

 to the report of the Department of 

 Agriculture more than 99 per cent, of 

 the food of this dove is vegetable 

 matter and less 1 per cent, animal. 



