THE OQLOGIST. 



Vol. 4, No 2. ALBION, N. Y, MAKC H-MAY, 1887. ] b.-month.v. 



' 25c. Per Year. 



Notes Ornithological and Otherwise 

 from Spoon River Region, Illinois. 



Constantly travelling over a°large section 

 of country comprising every variety of 

 river, creek, timber, bvisli and prairie land, 

 and ever on the alert |f or all forms of bird 

 •and animal life, there is not much of it in 

 this region but comes undtr my observa- 

 tion sooner or later. 



A few extracts from my note book will 

 serve to show what dsiily comes under my 

 notice, and also show what the more com- 

 mon winter residents are in Central Illinois. 



Jan. 10th — Taking my gun and a couple 

 of boys, crossed the river on the ice to a 

 grass slough in a field. Snow one foot 

 deep. Climbing up a small tree I had the 

 boys beat the high grass from different 

 directions towards the tree. Shot seven 

 rabbits before getting down. liagged two 

 more before getting back to town. Total, 

 nine rabbits. Tine, one hour and thirty 

 minutes. 



Jan. 11th — A farmer to-day brought me 

 an Albino Squirrel that he had shot in some 

 oak woods. A very beautiful specimen, 

 snow white, with pink eyes. Have care- 

 fully mounted it and consider it quite an 

 acquision to my collection of skins and 

 curiosities. It is undouljtedly the common 

 red or fox squirrel whicli are very abun- 

 dant here. I now find a number of persons 

 who claim to have either killed or seen 

 them. Yet in twenty years, during which 

 time I have killed hundreds of Red and 

 Gray Squirrels this is the only one I have 

 ever .seen. 



Jan. 12th— While six miles west on the 

 praiiie saw six American Hawk Owl, 

 Surned funerea in one evergreen tree. 

 They were quite tame, and I drove by 

 within two rods of them and they did not 

 fly. I had my gun with me and could 

 have bagged the lot, but possessing a skin 



I did not see fit to needlessly slaughter 

 them. A cattle feeder near by told me 

 that a fiock of fifteen had been about his 

 premises for several days. When they 

 were not hawking about, sitting in the 

 evergreen trees in his door yard. I have 

 not been able to find them nesting here, 

 only appearing din-ing severe cold weather, 

 and on the praries only, departing for the 

 north when milder weather appears. 



Jan 13th — Saw a pair of Buteo Pennsyl- 

 vanicm, Broad-winged Hawks, also two 

 flocks of Ciipklonia Cupido, Prairie Hens. 

 These flocks were on the prairie and about 

 four mOes apart. Thirty-two in one flock 

 and seventeen in the other. 



Jan 14th — Weather warmer. Snow melt- 

 ing. Bird life more active. The following 

 is some of the birds I observed in a thirty 

 mile round : 



Several pairs of Buteo borealis. Red-tailed 

 hawks. 



Shot an AhIo Americdnus, Long-eared 

 Owl. 



Saw several Great Northern Sheiks. 



Many Jays, Juncos, Winter Wrens, B. C. 

 Chickadees, Tufted Titmice. Several Car- 

 dinals. A White-bellied Nuthatch. Many 

 DownJ^ Hairy, and Red-naped Wood- 

 peckers. Three Ruffed Grouse whicli flew 

 out of a bush covered with a bitter-sweet 

 vine, the scarlet-red berries being the attrac- 

 tion that drew them there. 



Counted one hundred and twenty-eight 

 crows passing over me between sun-down 

 and dark to their roost eight miles north- 

 west. A few evenings later I again counted 

 (jne hundred and thirty-two in one flock 

 flying 10 the same place. At this roost, in 

 mild weather, hundreds of them come 

 every night. It is a Jack or Yellow Oak 

 grove of about twelve acres at the margin 

 of th(; prairie and surrounded on all sides 

 by cultivated fields, and is probably the 

 largest crows roost nearer than Kentucky, 



