44 



THE OOLOGIST. 



three eggs with slight incubation. 

 The other sets ranged from fresh to 

 chicks with feathers. 



I am quite well convinced from 

 many years of observation that this 

 Hawk replaces the leaves from time to 

 time during incubation as I have 

 found them in nests containing eggs 

 in all stages, frequently finding badly 

 incubated and leaf stained eggs in 

 nests with fresh leaves. 



In the "Life Histories," Major Ben- 

 dire records finding green willow stems 

 with the leaves on, in lining of nest, 

 containing two fresh eggs and (juotes 

 Wm. L. Belding, regarding the find- 

 ing of three young birds in nest which 

 contained green, but dry, and broken 

 leaves in lining. Both nests of this 

 species. 



Davie in the "Nests and Eggs" at- 

 tributes the green leaf habit to the 

 Florida Red-shouldered Hawk also. 

 C. S. Sharp, 

 Escondido, Calif. 



Red-winged Blackbird. 



The curious notes of the Red-wing, 

 liquid when close by, burly at a dis- 

 tance, have given rise to a variety of 

 phrasings most surprising. Yet, out 

 of the host, not one is perfectly satis- 

 factory. If it were, it would be accept- 

 ed and used as such. (e. q. the 

 "Teacher teacher", etc. which Bur- 

 roughs applied to the Ovenbird.J The 

 most generally favored at present 

 seems to be one of the earliest, that 

 used by Thoreau— "conqueree." 

 When the phrasing is changed, the 

 changed form may be very like the 

 original, e. g. the "kong-quer-ree" 

 used by Chapman. All that I have 

 seen have good points, all save one— 

 Flagg's "chip-chip-churee" which 

 might as well apply to any other bird. 

 The general fault (in my opinion, of 

 course) seems to be the lack of an ex- 

 plosive syllable, and the fact that the 

 first, almost inaudible syllable, is giv- 



en equal importance with the last, the 

 only part of the song audible at a 

 good distance. Why not italicize the 

 last syllable? W^ith the assumed 

 faults corrected, it might stand as 

 "con-ker-p?^^. " 



Norman O. Foerster. 



Young Spotted Sandpipers can Swim. 



Last summer while out on a collect- 

 ing trip in a large swamp south of the 

 city, having collected nothing but a 

 set of Yellow Warbler and American 

 Red-start, I sat down to rest on a bank 

 of a small pond, feeling a little dis- 

 couraged. A small fiock of Sand- 

 pipers came into view, and while 

 watching these a Least Bittern came 

 and scared the Sandpipers away. I 

 went over after the Bittern. I flushed 

 up an old Sandpiper and her little 

 chicks. Two of these little fellows 

 came in the path and ran towards the 

 pond. I stopped for them to come 

 back, being afraid they w'ould get 

 drowned, but to my surprise they 

 walked into the water and swam out to 

 a small sand bar where I could not 

 get them. In the meantime the Bit- 

 tern became frightened and flew away. 

 I walked up the bank aways and sat 

 down to watch the young Sandpipers. 

 I caught one with little difficulty and 

 examined them to see if they had web- 

 bed feet. They had not. I then took 

 him and flung him in the pond about 

 two rods out, he came to the top and 

 swam to the shore and hid in the grass. 

 This may be a little news to some. 

 Alax Wright, 

 Gloversville, N. Y. 



The young of all the wading birds 

 that I have had opportunity to study 

 swim with perfect ease and "voluntarily 

 when a few hours old. Many, though 

 not web-footed, have limited diving 

 powers also. Ed. 



EDITORIAL. 



WILD PIGEONS RE-APPEAR. 

 Big Flock of Rare Birds Seen at Chardon. 



Chardox, O., Nov. 2.— A flock of 

 fully 500 wild pigeons passed over 

 Chardon, Saturday afternoon. Hun- 

 dreds of people who are familiar with 



