72 



THE OOLOGIST 



In my night rides now I am constantly 

 on the qui vive for the music of the Bubo 

 Virgtm'anus, locating their haunts for fur- 

 ther investigation about February 20th. 

 They are in pairs now, and the "deep, de- 

 liberate hoot" of the one is immediately 

 followed by the "shallow, quick, nervous 

 note" of the other. Have the readers of 

 the OoL. ever noticed this difference in the 

 notes of the sexes. Doubtless they have. 

 Thos. H. Jackson of West Chester, Pa., 

 writes me that he has often remarked it. 

 1 have been aware of it since my boyhood, 

 and have reasoned by analogy that the 

 tiner, nervous scolding voice must of course 

 i)elong to the female. A pair of them have 

 commenced housekeeping in a large syca- 

 more just across the river from my house, 

 and late in the evenings they seem to have 

 many cares and responsibilities to discuss. 

 The Bubo's liave nested in this tree many 

 times in years past, and often later a pair 

 of Aix Sponsa's, American Wood Duck, 

 would occupy the same nest. 



Dr. W. S. Strode, 

 Bernadotte, Fulton Co., Illinois. 



■Wonderful Peculiarities of the Ruby- 

 throat Humming-bird. 



About the latter part of May in the year 

 1883, as I was rambling through my 

 orchard one day, I observed a Ruby-throat 

 Humming-bird darting from one tree to 

 another and I stopped to observe its mo- 

 tions, when the thought occurred to me 

 that there might be a nest near by, so I 

 seated mysslf under one of the trees and 

 waited for further developments. She was 

 seated on a dead limb of one of the trees 

 when presently she darted to a limb on the 

 next tree, and, lo ! there was her nest about 

 ten feel from the ground and looking like 

 a little moss knot. It contained two eggs 

 slightly incubated. Of cours'i I gathered 

 them nest and all, and in three or four days 

 I discovered her builning another nest on 

 an adjoining tree, and in eight days from 

 the time I took the first nest she had an- 

 other nest completed and two more eggs 

 which I also gathered. The bird then 



moved back to the tree where she first 

 built, only on the opposite side of the tree, 

 and built again. A friend of mine found 

 the nest this time, and on the seventh day 

 it contained one egg and on the eighth day 

 when he went to gather it he found that 

 some unknown person had broken off the 

 limb and had taken it nest and all, and siiJl 

 not being discouraged she again built her 

 fourth nest on another tree close by, and in 

 eight days from the time the last was stolen 

 it was completed and contained two eggs. 

 The next spring of 1884 the bird came 

 back and built her nest within ten feet of 

 where I first found her nest the year be- 

 fore, and the next year of 1885 my orchard 

 was sowed to wheat, and not caring to 

 tread down the standing grain I did not 

 look for it but I am certain she nested there 

 that season for I saw her gathering down 

 from the blossoms of a kind of willow that 

 grows in marshy places and fiy directly 

 into the orchard, and last summer, June 

 24th, 1886, I again found her nest within 

 four feet of where I first found her nest 

 three years before. I again gathered it, 

 and on the eighth day when I knew there 

 would be another nest I was too busy to 

 look, but on the tenth day being Sunday 

 July fourth, I again walked out in the 

 orchard with perfect confidence in finding 

 another nest, and I was not disappointed, 

 for on looking around a short time I found 

 it again with two eggs slightly incubated. 

 It was undoubtedly the same bird that 

 built all these nests and clung to her nest- 

 ing place so long. It is a wonder what can 

 be learned by the study of natural history. 

 James B. Purdy, 



Plymouth, Mich. 



Parental Fidelity of the Song 

 Sparrow. 



Having just finished reading a short 

 article on " bird surgery " (a cojiy of which 

 1 enclose) induces me to relate an experi- 

 ence showing the remarkable experience of 

 a pair of Song Sparrows. During the 

 latter part of May, 1886, while engaged in 

 removing an old pile of willow brush I 



