64 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 16-No. 4 



Correspondence. 



Edito)- of O. tt O.: 



You will Knd in this letter my clues for the 

 O. ct- O. for 1891. Please let it continue to 

 come as usual. I have taken the maj^azine for 

 several years and I can truthfully say that it 

 has continued to improve year by year. I am 

 always glad to sit down and read it in the 

 evening. You have my liojjes for future 

 success. Fitz Henry Chapin. 



Kalamazoo, Mich. 



Editor of O. it- O.: 



I have read in some magazine or paper that 

 the Californian Woodpc<ker sticks acorns in the 

 trunks of trees in order that they may rot and 

 so attract insects. I have had an opportuTiity 

 to investigate this matter a little in the last 

 few months, and as yet have not been able to 

 find a single insect in these acorns. The 

 acorns are very often cracked or sjjlit in two, 

 and only half an acorn put in each hole. The 

 object of the bird seems to be to let the nut 

 become soft or start to decay and then feed 

 upon it. I have examined the gizzard of sev- 

 eral of these woodpeckers and have found the 

 acorn meat in them. All the holes made by 

 this bird that I have seen were made in the 

 trunks and larger branches of the live oak 

 tiees. They all .seemed to have been used for 

 years. 



These woodpeckers have the same habit as 

 the Lewis Woodpecker, with which they asso- 

 ciate, of perching on the tops of the large 

 sycamores and live oak trees, from which they 

 dart out into the air after insects and return 

 to the same spot in the same manner as the 

 flycatchers do. E. D. KiinhiiU. 



Pomona, Cal. 



barn. No. 4, June ath, four eggs, incubation 

 two days, nest in same place as No. 1. No. 5, 

 June 14th, four eggs, incubation one day, 

 nest in an apple tree fifty feet from the barn. 

 No. 6, .June 2(!th, four eggs, incubation three 

 days, nest in poplar ten feet from my museum. 

 No. 7, .July Oth, three eggs, incubation two 

 days, nest same place as No. 1. Nests built 

 of hay, wool, rags, strings and a few feathers. 

 I have all the nests and eggs. Delos lliilrli. 

 Oakfleld, Wis. 



Editor of 0. <£■ O.; 



In the spring of ISS.J, in Van Wert County, 

 Ohio, I directed my attention almost exclus- 

 ively to the nesting of the Cardinal. Of 

 twenty-one sets, sixteen had four eggs each, 

 four three eggs each, and one had two eggs. 

 The latter was in an incomplete nest found 

 August intli, a second set, no doubt. After 

 l.iying her second egg she began incubating at 

 once, successfully hatching and rearing her 

 two young. My first nest was found April 

 20lh, containing four young. 



I think I saw an inquiry in the O. & O. as 

 to whether the crows' good taste for young 

 chickens is a -late thing or not; I think no'. 

 In the summer of 1S40 I saw a crow drop 

 down in a meadow where there was a hen with 

 her brood, and at the fourth attempt up he 

 came with a little white chick in his beak, 

 and made off to the woods. I remember it as 

 if but yesterday. -S'. Haider. 



Cheboygan, Mieh. 



Editor of O. tt- O. .- 



In November number of O. * O. Clyde L. 

 Keller asks if any one ever took twenty-four 

 eggs from the nest of one bird in a season. 



I took twenty-seven eggs and seven nests 

 from one pair of robins the last season. The 

 robins commenced building .about April 10th, 

 In an old hay barn on top of a brace. She 

 worked about two weeks, but the material 

 would not stay, when I nailed a block on the 

 brace to hold the nest, which the birds fin- 

 ished, and I took No. 1 May 1, 1890; four 

 eggs, fresh. No. 2, May 1.5th, four eggs, 

 incubation two days, nest same place as No. 

 1. No. 3, May 27th, four eggs, incubation 

 three days, nest in a binder 100 feet from the 



The Yellow-crowned Night Heron 

 Visits the Bay State. 



In the March number I stated on another 

 person's statement that a $ Bohemian Wax- 

 wing had been shot here. It proved to be a 

 Ce(larl)iid. 



The 8tli (yesterday) an a<lult Yellow- 

 crowned Night Heron was shot. baw this 

 bird and knew it mysidf. Is it not rare at this 

 season in this latitude? 



Frederie L. S)iiall. 

 rrovencetown. M.ass. 



[The bird above referred to was received by 

 us shortly after it was killed, ami proved to be 

 a J. It is a rare visitor here .and we know of 

 but one record of a .specimen being taken. 



— Eo.l 



