THE OSPREY. 

 Letter Box. 



37 



BUB WHITE ROOSTS HIGH. 



CiRCLEviLLE, 0., August 15, 1898. 



. CouEs : With compli- 

 ments and kind remem- 

 brance I want to to tell 

 you tliat tlirou-jh life there 

 has been a. lurking sus- 

 picion that Bob Wliite was 

 utt" the track of nature in 

 passing his nights on tlie 

 ground. His importance and 

 make up would seemnigly entitle him to 

 protection afforded by roosting in trees. 

 I suspected the probability that ground roosting 

 was tirst a necessity in the absence of trees 

 and in time a transmitted habit. Allusion was 

 made to this subject in the text written for Bob 

 White in "The Illustrations ol the Nests and Kggs 

 of Birds of Ohio," by Mrs. Virginia . fonts; I having 

 through the kindness of I'r. Howard Jones been 

 permitted to furnish the articles on game birds 

 published in Ihat work. 1 then thought the habit 

 could mo.-t likely be broken by a little domestic 

 intUience, but not until this year had an opportunity 

 presented to test the matter. May 23d, 18!)S, I 

 placed ten tiuair.s eggs under a partridge-colored 

 bantam hen weighing eleven ounces. The hen, at 

 this time, had been setting a week on six of her own 

 eggs. Fourteen days after, six bantam chicks came 

 out and were taken care of by hand, in order that 

 the mother might continue incubation another week 

 for the benetit of the Quail. The little mother 

 accepted the arrangement very pleasantly and in 

 due time was rewarded with nine young Ciuail. Be- 



fore removing the mother from the nest the six 

 bantam chicks were re-storedand permitted to spend 

 one night in the nest with their relatives. The 

 mother kindly accepting the whole family, she was 

 removed to the rear of my othce, a tightly fencfd 

 indosure, and (ilaced in a large wire cage, giving 

 the Quail and bantams the freedom of the yard, 

 which has a paved walk walk five feet wide fiom 

 the rear of the office to the barn. t)ii one si le of 

 this walk is a section ten feet square tilleil with wild 

 flowers, then 10x10 feet of grass plot, and then 

 10x10 feet of minatuie woods, of dwarf service 

 bushes and other shrubbery making a complete 

 "thicket." The opposite side of the walk is occu- 

 pied by cultivated flowers. In this environment 

 the youngsters flourished, the Quail feathering and 

 maturing much faster than the bantams, and by the 

 middle of June were full-grown birds. The 25l;h of 

 June the mother bade her family good-bye and left 

 for hrr old associates. The bantams appeared quite 

 well satisHed and on the ai)proach of evening fixed 

 themselves on the branches of the pawpaw bushes 

 lor the nii;ht. The Quail were not so well pleased 

 at this new arrangement, and refused to enter their 

 old roosting place of safety in the cage. At this 

 juncture I was called awav a short time, and when I 

 returned (not yet sundown) I found the tjuail side 

 by side with the bantams roosting on the limbs of 

 the small trees. Since then the bantams and ( Juail 

 have been roosting in the trees and are as gregarious 

 as both are known to be. The Quail appear so well 

 satisfied with sleeping on branches of the trees it is 

 barely possible they will ever go back to their old 

 and dangerous habit. Most respectfully, 



N. E. Jones. 



Pigeon Holes. 



Nkst of Calieornia 

 BrsHTiT — The nest from 

 which I made this draw- 

 ing was symmetrical am 

 beautiful. It was placed 

 in an alder tree, and just 

 below it was an old nest, 

 probably the last year's 

 nest of the same "birds. 

 Both nests were plainly 

 seen from a tiistance, 

 and reminded me of two 

 little inverted balloons. 



This new one contained eight apparently fresli eggs 

 on Miy 4, lSi»7, which is very late for northern Oal- 

 ifornia.— C. Chamberlin. 



I.MMACrLATE Barn Swallow's E(igs.— On June 

 18 of this year, in Mattapoisett, Mass., I entered a 

 rather dilapiilated cow-shed in which, on a beam, 1 

 found a Barn Swallow's nest. The bird almost let 

 me touch her before she flew, and when she did so I 

 found, much to my surprise, two white eggs, without 

 a vestige of the usual markings. Have there been 

 cases known of unmarked Barn Swallow's eggs 

 before? — R. Tvler, Mattapoisett, Mass. 



Observations on the Chimney Swift. — This 





morning I 

 enj oy ed a 

 very favor- 

 able oppor- 

 tunity for 

 making oh- 

 servat ions 



ontlieman- '[K^^'-^^M^ 

 ner in which ^^'^i^'^'-S?*. :ii ;'- 

 Chimney 

 Swifts o b - 

 tain the 

 twigs re- 

 quired for 

 nesting ma- 



