THK OSPREY. 



109 



We knew where he lay by the mass of buzzards 

 hovering'. Every hunter put spurs to his liorse 

 and bore down upon the quarry at a wild jiace, 

 but before we eould reach the deer the birds 

 had his eyes out and a hole as big as a bucket 

 picked in his side, and his liver and lights were 

 gone before the breath was out of his body. 

 We were not pleased to have our best trophy 

 mutilated so, but we then and there divined 

 the meaning of the colloquial word, "pluck," 

 which is an equivalent for the liver and lights 

 of an animal. The buzzards had plucked them 

 out. 



Buzzard's roosts are more conspicuous in 

 story than in evidence. Like the crow's roosts, 

 there are such, though they are not common. 

 At evening-, groups of a score or two will 

 gather at regular roosting places on some old 

 sycamore or Otaheite in suburban precincts, as 

 at New Berne, in North Carolina. Ordinarily, 

 the birds there are not plenty, but on slaughter 

 days, when bullocks are to be killed, they 

 gather at the shambles by hundreds, and on 

 the adjacent roofs and fences, where they 

 await with grim patience the throwing out of 

 the oifal when the dead meat is dressed. They 

 are a loathsome and uncanny liird. hut useful. 



CHAIiLES H.M.I.OCK. 



NESTING OF HERMIT WARBLER. 



Santa Clara, Cat... Feb. .3, 1S99. 

 Editor of The Ospkey: 



A statement in the article by Milton S. Ray, 

 "A Summer Trip to Yosemite." in the Decem- 

 ber number, is no doubt an error in identifica- 

 tion. He mentions taking two eggs of the Her- 

 mit Warbler from a nest "placed in thick 

 shrubbery along the river." He further de- 

 scribes the nest as similar to the Yellow Warb- 

 ler's, etc. Doubtless what he did find is a nest 

 of Dendroeca nigrescens. not oc'cidentalis, foi- 

 the latter nests entirely (so far as known) in 

 coniferous trees at some height from the 

 eround. Mr. Beck's set. takeii in 1S9fi. was 

 forty feet fi-om the ground on a )""? limb, 

 ivhile my set, taken in June, 1S9S, in El Dorado 

 county, was about forty feet up in a \ellow 

 nine. Both Mr. Beck's nest and mine are sim- 

 ilar in construction, being considerablv larger 

 than any Yellow Warbler's nest recorded from 

 these parts, and also distinctive in foi'matiou. 

 being lined nrofuselv with red cedar bark in 

 both cases. Tn fact, this seems a peculiai'ity of 

 the Hemiit Wai-bler. The egps also have a 

 creamy color fnot greeni.sh-buff. as 'Mv. T?av 

 states'), and are ap^ireciablv larsrer than effffs 

 of the Yellow Warbler, instead o^ smaller. 

 "Ridsrway eives the averatre of the eo-ffs of the 

 Vellow Warbler as n.fiBxn 4S. Mr. Beck's set 

 of Hermit's eo-Qs measured n.Vlxn.,51. 0.71x0. .52. 

 n.72xn.,')l and n.70xn..5n. Mv set was slig-htlv 

 smaller, being O.R6xO..')2. n.68xO..';3, n.fi7xn..53 and 

 0.R7xn.53. 



Tn further support of mv ide.n that Afr. "Rnx- 

 has mistaken the Black-throated Orav Warbh»v 

 for the Hermit, the nest of the former is quite 

 •^''rnilar in shape, size and cnmposi+ion to the 

 Yello-xv Warbler's, except the lininp- which 

 is fibers, etc.. as Mr. Bay states. Besides, the 

 Hermit Warbler is never recorded as nesting in 

 bushes. 



The Hermit Warbler is a rare breeding resi- 

 dent, and but two authentic sets have been 

 taken in California so far as recorded. My set 

 of 1S98 was the second, and will be recorded in 

 either the April Auk or an early Cooper Club 

 Bulletin, 



Yours sincerely, 



Chester Barlow. 



THE ART OF KICKING GENTLY. 



Atchisox, Kansas, Feb. 15, 1S99. 

 Editor of The Osprpey : 



I have been reading The Osprey with a great 

 deal of pleasure. Such a medium of communi- 

 cating items of news in the bird world is 

 needed, and The Osfrey fulfills this purpose 

 \ ery well. 



Having said this. I regret to feel called upon 

 to pass any criticism on so excellent a journal. 

 My experience has taught me to dread "kick- 

 ers" above all people, but I hope you will not 

 look upon me as one of the chronic recalci- 

 trants. To come to the iioint. it is the record 

 of bird-killing- and nest-robbing in your mag- 

 azine that pains me. Is it necessary to print 

 articles that .strike one as gory"? Will not the 

 influence on young persons be harmful, lead- 

 ing them to think that they can not study 

 birds without using guns and collecting eggs? 

 It seems to me that enough birds have been 

 treated in this cruel way. even for scientific 

 purposes, in cases where the species are very 

 rare. 



Take, for example, Mr. Philo W. Smith's in- 

 teresting article in The Osprey for December, 

 on the nesting of the Blue-winged Warbler. It 

 grieved me to think that he i'elt it necessary 

 to rob the three nests he found and even kill 

 one of the poor little birds. W'hat need had 

 he of so many eggs, or of any? After making 

 sure of the identity of the birds, was not that 

 enough? If he had watched the birds building 

 their nest, hatching- their young, and rearing 

 them, and then told us the story in his gra])hic 

 way, he would have contributed something to 

 our knowledge of bird life as well as to lit- 

 erature. Others have, doubtless, found the 

 nest of the dainty Blnewing-, and have robbed 

 it and killed the birds, but who has ever pa- 

 tiently studied the nesting habits of this 

 species? It seems to me that it would be more 

 scientific to study birds in all the varied ])hases 

 of their lives than to shoot them and despoil 

 their nests as soon as found. 



Other articles in your magazine evince the 

 same disposition on the part of the writers to 

 kill and rob. If we really wi.sh to spare the 

 birds, I feel that professional ornitholog-ists 

 must set the example of mercy. As long as 

 many of them continue to destroy with so 

 ruthless a hand, our arguments against pot- 

 hunters and fashion-mongers are robbed of all 

 their moral force. I think T know how you feel 

 on this subject, for T have read with sincere 

 pleasure your add]-ess before the W^orld's Con- 

 g^-ess on Ornithology. If you can induce those 

 who write for The Osprey to observe the birds 

 instead of hunting them, and then describe the 

 facts, you could make the mag-azine an ideal 

 one. 



