THE OSPEEY. 



135 



Hawk. So near would their cry resemble a 

 hawk'.s, I have often looked about to see if there 

 was a hawk, when I would discover the mimic. 



In the spritif^", however, as noisy as they have 

 been, and as common as they seem to have been, 

 they seem to all disappear, and any but the very 

 keen, careful observer, would consider they had 

 all left for other parts to breed. They become 

 very quiet and shy, and hardly a bird is to be 

 seen, and not a sound is to be heard, except per- 

 haps one may hear a sort of stifled sound which 

 one would almost believe was that of a Blue 

 Jay, but as none are seen or heard he thinks he 

 is mistaken. Every bird student has a territory 

 that he likes to term "his preserve". The writer 

 had one such near his old home at Farming-ton. 

 Maine. It was a low, wet tract, with here and 

 there a patch of grey birches, willows, black 

 alder, blackberries, and a wet boggy slough pro- 

 fusely fring-ed with cat-tails, and an abundance 

 of poison ivy all through the place, and well 

 covered with patches of g-oklen-rod. On the 

 other side was a dense g-rowth of poplars and 

 maples, with here and there a patch of firs and 

 hemlocks, and an occasional spruce, and border- 

 ing- on the Wilson stream. The atmosphere 

 was made musical by the ever present mosquito, 

 that had the audacity and persistence of the 

 average mosquito. It was a dark, quiet strip of 

 woods, very solitary' and lonesome, but not so to 

 me as I spent much time pleasantly there in 

 search of the bird-life that was so abundant. I 

 spent a g-reat man^- mornings and whole days 

 in this place, among the birds, for several years 

 before I became aware that there was a pair of 

 Blue Jays nesting there. One morning in Ma3- 

 1889, as I pushed my way through the gre^' 

 birches on the upper side, I heard a stifled sound 

 that seemed like that of a Blue Jay. Soon I saw 

 a rather shallow looking nest, that looked un- 

 occupied, in the top of one of the slim birches, 

 about ten feet up. I pulled the tops of several 

 trees together, to hold mj' weight, and went up 

 to the nest. I found two eggs in the nest. Im- 

 mediately two Jays dropped into the tops of the 

 bushes near me, and set up a great cry at my 

 disturbing the nest. Before I reached the nest. 

 not a sound except the single note, was heard 

 and I had not supposed there was a Jay in that 

 vicinity. The eggs were incubated; at least one 

 was. It was normal in size and coloration. 

 The other was about one fourth size snialler and 



had a heavy wreath of spots about the smaller 

 end. It was also more pointed at the smaller 

 end, and was addled. 



June 13, 1893, I found their nest not far from 

 the site occupied in 1889. This nest was in a fir 

 bush five feet ten inches from the ground. It 

 was composed of dead twigs of the alder, coarse 

 roots mixed with a few bits of bark, lined with 

 fine dark roots. This nest contained but two 

 eggs, of the usual size and coloration. In June 

 1898, I found a nest in a spruce bush among the 

 dense growth of alders, with four eggs nearly 

 readv to hatch. And June 17, 1889, their set of 

 three was complete. The nest was about two 

 rods from the nest of last year. 



I have examined two other nests of this bird 

 in Franklin County. One was on a long bare 

 ridg-e or ledge with a scanty growth of sweet 

 ferns and grey birches; a lonesome out-of- 

 the-way place, not far from the railroad track. 

 I saw the nest, but thought it an old one, and 

 passed it by, but had not gone far when I re- 

 traced my steps and pulled it down within reach. 

 It contained two eggs that were both addled. 

 The two birds mysteriously appeared, and pro- 

 tested against disturbing their nest. Another 

 nest was in a dense growth of fir bushes. A 

 friend found it. It contained four eggs, much 

 lighter in color than any I had ever seen before. 

 Thev were colored much like, and quite resem- 

 bled' the eggs of the Virginia Rail. He left the 

 nest undisturbed, but when he showed it to me 

 a few days later, no birds could be seen. We 

 watched for them for several days, but they did 

 not come back to the nest. 



If the female is on the nest when found, she 

 will usually remain till one gets very near to 

 her; then she flutters oft" to find her mate, which 

 is not far off. Then both return and put up a 

 big fuss against being thus disturbed. They 

 remain quiet and solitary while rearing their 

 brood, then return early in September to the 

 orchards and haunts of man, and become as 

 noisy as ever. They are more common breeders 

 in the state than is supposed, but they are so 

 shy and retiring and so quiet during this period, 

 that one may pass to and fro many times and 

 entirely overlook them. They destroy the eggs 

 of some of our song birds, but otherwise the 

 damage done to the agriculturist is not of 

 much account. 



WILLIAM SWAINSON AND HIS TIMES.— III. 

 By Theodore Gill, Washington, D. C. 

 I Continued froMi page 123.) 



The aggregate of the birds enumerated by Von 

 Penzeln as collected by Natterer alone reached 

 up to no less that l,b80 species. Many other 

 species have been added by other naturalists 

 and the Brazilian birds thus represent the 

 richest of the world's avifaunas. 



The next in extent — that of India — furnished 

 only 1,626 species up to 1898. 



And Natterer did not confine himself to col- 

 lecting birds. He likewise made large collec- 

 tions of mammals, reptiles and fighes as well as 



other objects and enriched the Museum at 

 Vienna so that it long excelled all others in Bra- 

 zilian Vertebrates. That most remarkable am- 

 phibian fish, Lepidosiren paradoxus, was first 

 obtained bv him, and was so long unrepresented 

 in other museums that its very existence was 

 called in question. 



Natterer, indeed, was one of the "born collec- 

 tors"' and his like we can never see again, for no 

 region of the earth remains unexplored as it did 

 in his day. 



