136 



OKN^ITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 13-No. 9 



some lime* lliere Wduld be a liutidied or more 

 on the field sciatcliing and pulling up the corn, 

 and no amount of scare-crows would l;i'c]i 

 them oil", so tliey bothered him all siniiuici-. 



The next year they were not so jilenty, as a 

 near nel}j;hbor liad poisoned a good many, but 

 he said he liad to plant a good deal ot the corn 

 over, though the damage done was trifling he 

 didn't want the troubU? of planting it over so 

 man}' times, and for this reason he wanted to 

 be rid of tliem. 



I explained to him that it was not the corn 

 the crows were after but tlie various small in- 

 sects, larva' and coleoptera that invest tlie ctnii 

 and potato fields in this section, and in order to 

 get at them the Crows had found that pull- 

 ing up the corn was the easiest and most effec- 

 tive wa3', and this pieca ot land in particular 

 being old was full of the kind above mentioned, 

 and of course the Crows found it out naturally 

 and had worked on tins till they had cleaned 

 them all out as he said they had not botlicred 

 him any thus far, and after sliowing him some 

 of the records of the examinations of the stom- 

 achs of these birds, he said that he was con- 

 vinced that after all tlie Ciows were not so 

 destructive as he thought and he went home a 

 wiser it not a better man. 



Nests of Flicker and Downy Wood- 

 pecker in the Same Stub. 



BY C. C. JIAXFIF.I.l), WII,I.Al;l>, NEW Vol.'K. 



In the spi'ing of 1S8J, while camping on the 

 Oneida river, about three miles above its Junc- 

 tion with the Seneca, I fortunately found a 

 prize in a small, rotten, soft-maple stub, which 

 was about eight feet high and ten inches in 

 diameter. The stub was standing Jiear the 

 water among a lot of scraggly swamp bushes, 

 that usually grow at tiie margin of this stream. 

 .Tust back of this stub was a small grove of 

 walnut (hickory) trees. There was a pathway 

 made by cattle, i)assing within five feet of the 

 stub. 



At a distance ot four feet above the grouiul 

 was a Golden Flicker's {Culaptes aurattia) nest. 

 Just above, about ten inches more, was a nest 

 of the Downy Woodpecker (Picas puln'sccns). 



The stub was so decayed that I picked away 

 the wood with my fingers to get the eggs. 

 The Flicker's nest was eight inches in depth; 

 the Downy's five inches, and both were entiiely 

 worked out by the birds and seemed to be 

 freshly built. The Flicker's nest contained 



eight eggs, incubation about one week. In tlie 

 nest of the Downy were five eggs, all fresh. 



When I had obtained the eggs from botli of 

 the nests, the whole top of the stub had been 

 picked away, leaving about four feet still stand- 

 ing, and in the top of it was a slight convexity : 

 tlie bottom of the Flicker's nest. 



The nests of the Flicker are counuon in that 

 part of Oswego County, but this is the only 

 time I have ever observed the Downy nesting 

 there. The latter are to be seen at all seasons 

 of the year and probably breed in some num- 

 bers. 



In the spring of 1885, I was again on niy way 

 up the t)neida and passing the stub I found a 

 Crow ISlackbird had taken possession of it and 

 had built her nest in the top. I was very near 

 the bird before she flew olf and could not be 

 mistaken in such a common bird. I took a set 

 of four eggs from the nest. 



This nest was very light and llimsy as com- 

 pared with other nests of the same species. It 

 appeared to be only lining, and was totally 

 lacking the coarser outside material that is 

 usually found in their nests. In fact some 

 [larts of the wood of the stub were plainly visi- 

 ble through the nest. 



Remarkable Nesting Sites of the 

 Black Snowbird. 



ISY W. I.. lilSIIOl', KKXTVII.I.E, N. S. 



Nest No. 1 was found JLay 13th, 1887, and 

 contained five fresh eggs of this species {Junai 

 liilciiu(Ua). It was in a hole nine feet from the 

 ground, in the side of a large apple tree which 

 stands about fifty feet from a dwelling house, 

 and within eight feet of the barn in the central 

 part ot the town of Kentville. The cavity ex- 

 tended down about nine inches below the en- 

 trance and here the nest was built. Not much 

 material of any kind was used in its construc- 

 tion, simply a little dry grass and sparingly 

 lined with hair. 



Nest No. 2 was found in the woods about 

 halt a mile out of the town of Kentville, on 

 May 17th, 1887, by Walter Ryan. This was 

 situated about four feet from the ground on a 

 branch ot a fallen spruce tree, and contained 

 four fresh eggs. The nest was composed of 

 the usual material used by this bird, except 

 that it contained in its lining a black Ostrich 

 featlier about seven inches long. 



Nest No. 3 was found in Kentville, June 1st, 



