58 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 13-No. 4 



she ie;i|)pe:iie:i iinil began to wipe her bill on 

 the tree, as ;i hen will do after eating dongli, 

 only in the most rapid and vigoi'ons manner, as 

 if her verj- life depended. Wliile thus engaged 

 she kept circling around the hole, but never 

 more than eight or ten inches from it. Oc- 

 casionally she would stop and run into the hole, 

 only to reappeai' again and renew operations. 1 

 watched her at least ten minutes, till to me it 

 began to grow decidedly irksome. It was too 

 much of a curiosity, and as she showed no 

 signs of giving out I decided to go on. About 

 ten days afterwards I visited the place again, 

 but she had stopped work and flown away. I 

 rapped on the tree but could not st.irt her. and 

 was satisfied that she was not nesting there. 

 .Since then I have seen another performance of 

 the same kind in a different locality, and, of 

 course, by another bird. 



This bird is brave in defcn<liug her nest, as I 

 once saw abundant proof. I was staniiing not 

 fai' from a tree in which a Xuthatch had a nest, 

 observing the movements of a pair of Hed- 

 shouldei-ed Hawks whose nest was near by, 

 when a gi'ay scpiirnd i-aii past and started up 

 tile tree in which the Xuthatidi was. He had 

 gone up only a short distance when the Nut- 

 hatch came out from her nest, and running 

 down a foot or more from the bole, stopped 

 and began to swing herself back and forth, 

 as she chmg by her foot like a ijenduhim. The 

 nest was at least sixty feet from the ground, 

 and the squirrel did not notice the liird till he 

 came within ten or twelve feet of hrr, w ben he 

 made a sudden stop. 'I'lie steady, swinging 

 motion continued as the poor bird bravely 

 faced the foe, while he stood motionless and 

 evidently puzzled. For a while I was uncer- 

 tain what the next move woidd be, but I 

 brought my gun to my shoulder ready to strike 

 quick should the s(pMrrel show any hostile in- 

 tention. Although the fellow quailed before 

 the defiant look of the brave bird, and darting 

 around the tree, ran up some distance above 

 the nest and seated himself on a limb. In a 

 short time the bird i-eturned to her nest. 



I do not understand what becomes of all the 

 Xuihatches that are reared from year to year. 

 Fn\- more than a dozen years I have known 

 just where to look for the different pairs of 

 birds in this vicinity. In each tract of woods, 

 a single pair, and no more, have made their 

 home, and probably all the different pairs have 

 raised a brood of young. But I have not been 

 able to discover any increase in the number of 

 birds, except that after the young were fledged 

 1 have seen a family strolling together. But 



during the winter and following spring, each 

 tra(!t contains its single jjair of birds. .Some, of 

 course, die from natural causes, and others are 

 destroyed by enemies, but we can hardly sup- 

 pose that the number which perislies just 

 equals the number produced. It would be 

 enough easier to say that the surplus moves off' 

 to othe- localities. But the probability is that 

 each piece of woods outside of my fleld of ob- 

 ser\'ation has its pair of Ijirds, and has had 

 in years past, and why should not the overflow 

 from those places be poured in lierey 



Additions to the List of Birds 

 of Oneida County, New York. 



in i;(ini;irr hagg, utica, n. v. 



For this past year's work I am able to add 

 two birds to our local list, the Large-billed 

 Watej- Thrush (Siiinui inntai-iUii), a tine male of 

 which I secured on May 9, 1887, and the Or- 

 chard Oriole (Irtertis sjmriiis), a male of which 

 bird, in tlie third year, I had the pleasure of 

 watching for quite a long time, both with the 

 naked eye and with the field glass, on May 15, 

 on a Sunday alternoon. when guns were left at 

 home. However, with a bird of such marked 

 plumage there could be no mistake, and the 

 roi'ord is as good as possible without taking the 

 bird. 



The next is not as good, but I give it for what 

 it is worth. One day in June, while wading in 

 Oneida liake, my gnn being on shore, a pair of 

 Common Doves {ZpnaiClura carolhiensis), passed 

 between me and the tind)er, and lit in a large 

 pine. I watched them for a moment, and then 

 stai-ted for my gun. Before I could come in 

 lange, however, they were ofl'Mkethe wind, and 

 although I visited the locality every day for two 

 %veeks, I saw no more of them. They were cer- 

 tainly either Common Doves or Wild Pigeons 

 {Ectopistesmi(/ratoria), audi am quite confident 

 they were the former. (The latter would be 

 quite as mucli out of place on Oneida Lake in 

 June). 



Near this lake I found the Small-billed Water 

 Thrush (Siunis nctvius), and the Whip-poor- 

 \\i\\ (Capfiinulr/us vociferus) conunon in .June, 

 and undoul)tedly breeding, .-ilthough I did not 

 succeed in finding the nests of either. 



Jlr. K. J. Hughes, of Keinsen, killed a Hud- 

 sonian Chickadee (Parus hudsonicus), at that 

 place in December, 188G, and has found two 

 nests of the Blackburnian Warbler (Dendrosca 

 blacklmrnix), near there, one in 1860 and one in 

 1887. both unf(U'tunately with young. 



