230 



THE OOLOGIST. 



sound of real pleasure.* Early in tlu 

 year the sonj? i.s utteicd fi-oiu thegrouiul 

 but as winter wanes and the intlueiiee 

 of coming spring- is feU, the birds be- 

 come livelier and mount up into tin 

 air, sometimes nearly ont of sight, sing- 

 ing for minutes together. 



There is no record of th(> nest of the 

 Horned Lark being found in this i-oun- 

 ty, yet it is verj' a])parent that they 

 breed here. It is probable that ilu 

 nest will be found in the near fnture. 

 since many of onr oologists are looking 

 especially for it each s))ring. 



W.N.C., 

 Binghamton, N. Y. 



Incidents in Bird Life. 



While taking a short walk one mo; ii- 

 ing during the latter part of INlareh, I 

 noticed a contliet l)et\veen a rol)in and 

 a flock of cedar-wawvings. Snow stil: 

 covered the ground and it was very 

 difficult for the robin to obtain insects 

 from the earth, so he had to seek elsi'- 

 where for iiis food. The liist I noticed 

 Avas the cedar-w awvings which were 

 all on a tree in a pri\ ale yard. They 

 all seeuuMl to be greatly excited, ami 

 were looking in the direction of a 

 mountain ash which had many of last 

 year's lierries on it. At lirsl I could 

 not discover the cause of tlu'ir excite- 

 ment, but it soon beeanu' apparent 

 when several of ihem tlew towards the 

 mountain ash, for a robin darted out 

 from among the bi-anches, where he 

 had been eating lieri'ics. and chased 

 them awa3'. He wouhl tly at one and 

 peck at him and then at another until 

 he was rid of all of them. He v>ould 

 then quietly resunu' his meal, I chased 

 the robin away and he ilew into a tree 

 on the street. As soon as he was gone 

 the whole flock of waxwings Avent for 

 tiie berries as if they were very jiun- 

 gry, but no sooner had they start d to 

 eat than the roliiii charge(l in among 

 them and the whole tloek were obliged 



to retiyat befoi'e liis sa\ age ])ecks. 

 Just then I was called away and when 

 I relnrned a, few hours later nothing 

 was to be seen of either the robin oi- 

 w a\v\ings. 



In the spring of '87 a ])hrt'be built a 

 nesl in an old log house occupied l)y a 

 farmer. He was away from home for 

 a few days and when he returned the 

 bird had her nest com[)lt ted. She had 

 entered the h.ousi- tlirough a cra(d< 

 above an imperfect tilling window. 

 She laid three eggs. \\'hene\er an\ 

 one ei!teicd the room she would H.\ 

 away but would retniMi in a few min- 

 ute.-. As it was net-essary to close the 

 ojx-ning above tlu' window, 1 obtained 

 the- eggs and nest. The ]>!Kebe then 

 began to construt't a lu-st in the cellar 

 of the same house, but being disturbed 

 here she abandoned it l)efor<' it was 

 linished. 



I have noticed that whenever the iggs 



of a cat-bird are taken the birds destroy 



the nest and carry away some of thcma- 



tei-ial, to t-on'<lruct a new nest, I think. 



Gus. Rai'P, 



Milwaukee, Wis. 



A Simple Contrivance. 



When collecting eggs it has always 

 bothered uu' until this summer, to find 

 whether or not there Avere any eggs in 

 a Wooilpecker's n*'st. Of course it is an 

 easy matter to break tlu- hole away 

 enough to see, but if there are no eggs 

 in the nest, as is often theeas(\ it makes 

 one feel a little mean to have destroyed 

 the ])oor bird's nest with no return. 

 This summei' it was suggested that I 

 try a piece of looking-glass. I imme- 

 diately i)rocured a piece, one inch l)y 

 tAvo, and found it to be ju-<t the thing. 

 By holding it in the top of the hole at 

 the right angle, the eggs could be i)lain- 

 ly seen in the bottom. 1 first tried this 

 scheme on a tiicker's nest, and although 

 the hole was ipnte deep, it reflected 

 enough light to discover seven eggs in 

 the bottom. 



