Feb. 1891.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



25 



notioed that the birds liad taken possession of a 

 bird-liouse put up on another house a sliort 

 distance away, and were building a new nest. 

 The fascination of that soutli window was 

 broken, and I saw tlie birds tliere no more. 



But one morning about tlie middle of July I 

 was awakened about sunrise by a very distinct 

 tap-iap-tnp on one of the windows of the hall 

 adjoining my sleeping chamber, and after a 

 short interval the rapping was repeated again 

 several times. The next morning at about the 

 same hour I was again startled by a similar 

 rapjjing on the same window. I thought of 

 Poe's Raven, and at last let my curiosity rouse 

 me to an investigation of the cause of the dis- 

 turbance. I was a little surprised to find that 

 it was my Bluebird with the old glare in her 

 eyes, perched on the sill, occasionally flutter- 

 ing against the panes, then pausing and peck- 

 ing against the glass with her beak and causing 

 the rapping that had at first attracted my 

 attention. During the few following weeks 

 similar demonstrations were a daily occurrence 

 at about; the same early morning hour, but not 

 continued through the day as before, .\bout 

 this time I inspected the new nest and found 

 a brood of four callow young, all of which 

 were successfully reared to maturity. 



A short time ago, as I was in my yard one 

 mild day after a long spell of wind and snow 

 auil cold, 1 was made aware of the presence of 

 a number of birds in the immediate vicinity, 

 skipping among the leafless boughs of tlie 

 apple trees or on the evergreens near at hand. 

 Xunilx'rs of Myrtle Warblers, a pair of White- 

 bellied Nuthatches, another of Golden-crowned 

 Kinglets, and among the rest three Bluebirds. 

 As I was watching these they came to the 

 building under the cornice of which still de- 

 pended the little bird-house where in the 

 spring was the first home of the Bluebirds, as 

 related above, and shortly one of the birds 

 descended to, and perched in the entrance and 

 gazed down with great apparent interest into, 

 the old nest of last spring. This manoeuvre 

 was repeated three times by the birds before 

 they followed the flight of the departing Hock, 

 when 1 with a little curiosity climbed up and 

 looked into the olil nest. It appeared exactly 

 as on the occasion of my former visit last May, 

 and the two little blue eggs still lay side by 

 side within, and they lie there now. 



John X. Chirk. 

 Savltrook, Conn. 



No ornithologist should be witliout the 

 O. & O. Only * 1.00 a yeai-. 



That Clangula. 



An explanation, — to the public; an apology, 

 — to Dr. Coues; a plea, — for myself: 



In the Jan. O. & O. appeared a note entitled 

 "Probable Addition to the Avifauna of Kan- 

 sas," in which effort was made to prove that a 

 young male Barrow's Golden-eye had been 

 recently taken in the Mosho Valley, the first 

 representative of its sub-species taken in the 

 state. In justice to Dr. Coues the readers of 

 O. & O. should note the caution with which 

 he properly spoke; and in justice to the read- 

 ers let it be known that Dr. Coues, — as also 

 Col. Goss, of Topeka, — pronounces the bird, 

 upon examination, to be nothing more illus- 

 trious than the common [ilaucium. In justice 

 to myself let there be lead an extract from a 

 late letter under the doctor's hand: "I admit 

 that the specimen is somewhat equivocal, sug- 

 gesting (-'. inlandica. 



But perhai)s I may be allowed to say that 1 

 based my own judgment as to the classification 

 of the specimen in cp;estion entirely upon Dr. 

 Coues' own differentiation, as given in his 

 "Key, etc." He notes the head of V. ijlaii- 

 cium as being "moderately uniformly pufl'y"; 

 and that of C. islnndica as having a slight 

 frontal and occipital crest. Now the Mosho 

 Valley, Dec. 1890, bird has a dislincihj marh-i tl 

 crest, on front and on orciimt. I leave it then 

 to the unbiased judgment of all candid orni- 

 thologists whether or no I should be consid- 

 ered as having boyishly junijied at a conclusion 

 in taking a contemporary classic in ornithol- 

 ogy entirely at its word. If, by my hasty 

 publishing of the note, I have in any way 

 compromised Dr. Coues, through the implica- 

 tion of his name, I hereby tender him my 



sincere and humble apology. 



P. B. Pi'ohoil,/. 



Nesting of the Cedar Waxwing at 

 Raleigh, N. C. 



Our first and, so far, only set of eggs of the 

 above species was taken at Kaleigh, .lune 13, 

 1890. The nest was large, and made of weed 

 stems and heads, lined with finer weed stems 

 and grass, and had a few dead twigs outside. 

 The nest was built among the brush at the end 

 of a pine limb and was forty-eight feet from the 

 ground, and about eight feet from the trunk. 

 It contained five eggs. The female was on the 

 nest, and the nest had been found originally 

 by watching the birds building. 



(J. S. Jiriniliy. 



