112 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 7-No. 14. 



fresh meat from the hand. The price for 

 them is twenty dollars. — //. A. JScrri/. 



Macon, Ga. 



^ 



Notes from St. John, N. B. 



Mr. James W. Banks of this city has 

 very kindly placed in my hamls his Oologi- 

 cal note-book for 1881, from which to make 

 extracts for the edification of onr mutual 

 friends the readers of the O. and O. 



On May 10 be took his first nest of the 

 season, the domicile of that much maligned 

 and wily bird the Common Crow, Corvus 

 fruglvorus, and had to cHmb some forty 

 feet wj} a spruce tree for it. The structure 

 was composed exteriorly of cedar twigs 

 and lined with moss. It contained five 

 fresh eggs. 



June 5. — A Kingfisher, Ceri/le alci/on, 

 was seen going into a hole in a sand-liank 

 and Banks followed him. After a hard dig 

 of about five feet he came to the nest and 

 took out six fresh eggs. 



On the day following he found the nest 

 of a Snowbird, {Junco hyemalis,) under the 

 shadow of a large stone in a shady nook. 

 There were four eggs in it partially incu- 

 bated. About fifty yards further on another 

 Junco had built a home but so far had put 

 only two eggs in it. comjileting the com- 

 j)lement of four however within the two 

 following days. 



June 10. — Flushed a Hermit Thrush, 

 Jli/locichla unalascce pallasi. Between 

 you and I, Mr. Editor, do you think it is a 

 square deal to give this innocent bird such 

 a name ? Don't you think if that bird had 

 to sign his name often, say as president of 

 a silver mining company with well watered 

 stock, don't you think he would — dash 

 Mr. Eidgway and tri-nominals ? O con- 

 fess to a strong desire to cling to the 

 " Txirdus" of other days, but I suppose I 

 must display my accpiaintance with t)ie 

 " new nomenclature" or, like the fellow 

 who the gr.xve digger in Hamlet condemns 

 for not having been at court, I shall be 

 "surely damned" in the eves of your sci- 



entific readers. Well, this long named 

 party got uji off three eggs laid in a nest 

 on the ground mider the protecting shade 

 of a low bending limb of a spruce tree. A 

 visit to the nest two days after determined 

 the fact that it had been deserted, and Mr. 

 Banks says "I have observed that this spe- 

 cies of bird frequently deserts a nest after 

 it has been discovered." 



June 1.5. — A Red-headed Woodpecker 

 3/el(i»erpes en/t/irocep?uiIiis v,-a,fi discovered 

 looking out from a hole in a birch stub 

 about eight feet from the ground. An in- 

 vestigation disclosed young birds about 

 ready to leave home. 



June 23. — He found a nest of the Ruby- 

 crowned Kinglet, (Reguliis calendula,) in a 

 dense fir thicket placed on the limb of a 

 tree close to the trunk, and about twelve 

 feet from the ground. In it were four 

 young vrith wings almost fit for flight. 



On the same <lay he flushed a Redstart, 

 {Setophaga rntic/'lla,) from a nest fixed in 

 the crotch of a limb of a yellow birch tree 

 about twenty feet from the ground. The 

 nest and eggs were not unusual excepting 

 in size, being much smaller than any he 

 has met with before. They had been hatch- 

 ing for some time, for in two days after 

 two birds had come out, the other eggs 

 l)eing sterile. 



June 28 — Was rewarded (?) for a long 

 hard tramj) by discovering a nest of the 

 Olive-backed Thrush, Jli/locichla ustulata 

 s'lnainsoni with two newly hatched birds 

 and one e^g. The nest was upon a spruce 

 tree about six feet from the ground. 



On the same day he disturbed a Black 

 and ^Miite Creeper, (or Creeping Warbler, 

 as it should be called, the editor of New 

 England Bird-life says,) MniotiUa varia 

 of authors. She was feeding four young 

 birds not more than a day or two out from 

 the shell. — 31. Chamberlain. 



Blue Birds. — In our daily drive of twelve 

 miles we have seen Blue Birds almost e^ery 

 day through the past Winter, always in 

 the morning. 



