124 



THE OOLOGIST. 



a soft nest for the eggs. For a foot 

 below the entrance, as well as slightly 

 above it, the bark was thickly covered 

 with pine pitch. The reason for this, 

 I have no idea, unless as suggested by 

 Mr. 0. E. Crooker, in Oologist for July 

 1892, it is for the purpose of keeping 

 ants, woodticks and other insects from 

 the nest, and imprisoning them in the 

 sticky substances, enables the birds 

 to devour them at their leisure. This 

 supposition is undoubtedly correct, as 

 the birds, it appears, could have no 

 other purpose in view. 



The eggs were of a delicate pinky 

 white hue, retaining the same color 

 upon being blown, and they were spot- 

 tfd all over with reddish brown chiefly 

 about the larger end. Their average 

 size is .61x.48 inches. 



CHAS. P. ALEXANDER. 



Bangor, Me., June 2, 1905. 



Accept my thanks for the copy of 

 Standard Catalogue recently received. 

 It is a most excellent and up to date 

 work and very handy for reference. 



I have found time to do some work 

 in the field this year, and though I do 

 less collecting than I did years ago I 

 do more studying of the birds and 

 their habits and accomplish much more 

 practical results. The photographing 

 of nests and eggs, fl.owers and other 

 nature studies occupies considerable 

 of my leisure time. In fact I do not 

 think of collecting a set of eggs now 

 days unless I have first secured a num- 

 ber of photographs of the nest and sur- 

 roundings. 



To-morrow Mr. J. Merton Swain and 

 and myself are thinking of trying to 

 find a nest or so of the Yellow Palm 

 Warbler. Though the birds nest regu- 

 larly in an extensive peat bog near 

 Bangor it is hard to find a nest save 

 by accident. 



Very truly, 

 O. W. Knight, B. S. 



Referring to Mr. ',Wm. E. Crispin's 

 article on the Screech Owl eggs which 

 take the measurements of Saw-Whet 

 I wish to calljhis attention to the fact 

 that the Saw-Whet while not being a 

 regular breeder as far south as Salem, 

 N. J., might possibly do so. I am 

 located at Odin, Illinois and I find I 

 am about sixty-five miles further south 

 than he is and I am positive I collected 

 a set of five of the Saw-Whet Owl on 

 March 18, 1890. See page 205 Vol. 10 

 No. 7, July 1893 Oologist for account 

 of said taking. I had this bird in my 

 hands about a dozen times and a fellow 

 collector and mj'self carefully com- 

 pared her with the description given 

 in Coue's Key and Ridgway's Manual 

 and we are confident we made no mis- 

 take. While his eggs by not being 

 fully identified at taking would remain 

 in doubt, yet there is a degree of pos- 

 sibility of this being Saw-whet Owl's 

 eggs. 



C. B. Vandercamp. 



Since June "Oologist" went to press 

 I have seen the set of Owl's eggs in 

 question. They were simply small 

 eggs of Screech Owl. I think the Saw- 

 Whet might breed in that latitude but 

 these would not do for Saw-Whet. 



Editor. 



A Snake in a Hawk's Nest. 



In reading the articles of green leaves 

 in Hawk's nest reminds me of a Red- 

 shouldered Hawk's nest I peeked into 

 a few years ago, it contained one fresh 

 egg and a spotted or milk snake 16 in- 

 ches long, but they nearly all have green 

 twigs from hemlock in this section. 

 A. E. KIBBE, 

 Mayville, N. Y. 



Publications Received. 



Nature Study, Vol. XIV, No. 7. 

 Amateur Naturalist, Vol. II, No. 

 and 4. 

 Am. Ornithology, Vol. V., No. 8. 



