40 



THE OSPREY. 



has the requisite qualifications and is not afraid of 

 hard work can erect a monument more lasting than 

 brass. Among the requisite qualifications may be 

 reckoned more zeal than discretion, youth, health, 

 strength, staying powers, unlimited time at com- 

 mand, and access to the foci of ornithological litera- 

 ture in some large eastern city. All my material, 

 both published and unpublished, shall be at the ser- 

 vice of any such individual, with any such oppor- 

 tunities, and any such appetite for bibliographical 

 immortality ; I will even throw my blessing into the 

 bargain. What do I hear in answer to this adver- 

 tisement : "Wanted — A competent bibliographer of 

 North American ornithology "? —E. C. 



General Notes. 



THE AMERICAN OSPREY AT BRISTOL, R. I. 



The accompanying photograph from life shows 

 the unifjue manner in which the inhabitants of 

 Bristol, R. I., provide suitable sites for the nests of 

 the Osprey, Pandioii li. riirolinusis. 



The original small colony of Ospreys nesting at 

 Bristol in the sycamore trees has been slowly en- 

 larged by the erection of a number of poles at the 

 top of which an old cart wheel is placed. 



The belief is that the presence of the Osprey 

 keeps other marauding hawks away and each new 

 pole that is put up finds a speedy tenant. 



The English Sparrows build invariably in the 

 foundation of the nests and the small bird seen on a 

 lower twig in the photograph is of this species. The 

 \oung hawk can be seen above the nest's edge — 

 Reginald Heber Howe, Jr., /.ongnwcn/, Brookliiic, 

 Mass. 



THE MYRTLE WARBLER, DENDROICA 

 CORONAT.\, IN MISSOURI IN SUMMER. 



June 21, 1897, while on an ornithological excur- 

 sion to the Meramec River, 20 miles southwest of St. 

 Louis, Mo., and following a swampy tract at the 

 foot of the hills, my son Otto surprised me with : 

 " Here is a Yellow-rump!" I could hardly belie\e 

 my eyes, but there was no mistake : it was a male in 

 fine dress, singing its little ditty every now and then, 

 feeding and hopping leisurely in the lower branches 

 of some old pine and black-oaks. 



We watched him over two hours, during which 

 time he remained in the same trees, keeping in the 

 lower branches, or descending to the rubbish on the 

 ground. 



At first we hoped to find the cause of his strange 

 attachment to the locality, but nothing could be 

 noticed to indicate a state of wedded blessedness, and 

 a subsequent visit, June 28, failed to bring him to 

 light again. What induced the bird to be so far 

 away from his usual breeding grounds at this time 

 of the year, will remain a mystery ; in time his 

 error amounts to at least five weeks, and in space to 

 over five hundred miles. — O. W'idm.^nn, Old Orch- 

 ard, Mo. 



A BROWN CROW. 



On the i6th of September, at Blackball, Ct., 

 1 shot a brown Crow. The color was, as nearly 

 as I can remember, grayish brown throughout, with 

 possibly a touch of light rufous. There was not a 

 black, or even dark, feather among the plumage. 

 Owing to a combination of circumstances I was un- 

 able to save the skin, or determine the sex. The 

 bird was not quite full-grown, and was accompanied 



by another of about the same size and color, as well 

 as by a pure black indi\'idual of the same species. 

 When I surprised the little group, all of them, but my 

 victim in particular, were performing a curious 

 dance, sometime hopping in a circle and again leap- 

 ing six inches from the ground, with much flapping 

 of wings and subdued 'cawing'. Except for the 

 plumage, the specimen taken was, I think, normal — 

 the eyes, I noticed, were of the ordinary shade. — 

 Phillip J. McCook, Hartford, Ct. 



RECORDS OF THE SAW-W^HET OWL AND 

 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. 



On June 15, 1S97, while searching for warblers' 

 nests far up the valley of Block River, I found in the 

 big timber bordering the stream, a nest of the Saw- 

 whet Owl containing four young. They were in 

 what had probably been a Flicker's home, 25 feet up 

 in a big beech stub. The mother bird was at home 

 and very angry at my visit, flying around near me 

 snapping her bill and uttering a very peculiar note — 

 impossible for me to describe on paper. 



Mr. Haines' articles on the Kinglets published in 

 recent numbers of The Osprey leads me to mention 

 the fact that on June 23, 1897, I saw and watched a 

 long time a single Golden-crowned Kinglet in a patch 

 of spruces just below the summit on Round Moun- 

 tain in this town. — Benj.'Mviin Ho.^g, Sfeplwiitown, 

 Nno Yort'. 



BLUEBIRDS. 



C)n the morning of Aug 29, a little after sunrise, 

 as I stood in the open air enjoying its freshness, 

 there were borne to my ears the old familiar, sweet 

 notes of the Bluebird. I looked upward, and there 

 saw a flock of 14 coming from a north-easterly direc- 

 tion. A few moments later a flock of five passed 

 over, and this was followed by five more ; then a 

 single bird brought up the rear. These are the first 

 Bluebirds I have seen or heard in this section since 

 the spring of 1894 when a few of them nested here 

 in the old accustomed places'. — Ch.arles Sloan 

 REin, Walhalla, S. C. 



AN ACROBATIC KINGBIRD. 



While watching a pair of Kingbirds at their nest 

 in a pear tree, June 17, 1896, I saw one of them start 

 for a Turkey Buzzard as it flew past, and after a 

 short chase it caught on to the feathers in the Buz- 

 zards back and maintaining its position rode for 

 about 50 feet the Buzzard in the meantime turning 

 from side to side in its endeavors to free itself from 

 its rider. Later in the day I saw it repeat the per- 

 formance. A friend of mine tells me of a similar 

 case where a Red-winged Blackbird rode on the back 

 of a Red-tailed Hawk. — Wm. H. Fisher, Raltiuiore. 

 Md. 



Correspondence. 



EuiTOR OK The Osprey : 



Dear Sir : I have read with the greatest pleasure 

 and profit the charming book 'Citizen Bird'. I 

 have followed L^ncle Roy and the children in all 

 their walks and talks, and wished that the book were 

 twice as long as it is. Mr. Fuertes' illustrations are 

 superb. I particularly admire the skill with which 

 the authors have introduced in the course of the 

 story, in the most natural manner, the natural 

 sequence of orders, beginning for obvious reasons 



