Ski'temhei; 1891.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



ISO 



sand-bar tliree or four rods off pruning tlieir 

 feathers and taking their morning bath. I 

 stood still and watched their graceful gam- 

 bols for some time, and would have done so 

 longer but a Llmpkin settled on a tree off to 

 the left and I felt compelled to break the 

 (piietude of the scene by electing him for the 

 good of the inner man. He fell in the water, 

 and as I waded in to pick him np I found a 

 bed of oy.sters. So here wa.s breakfast galore. 



Well, to make a long story short, I travelled 

 about in that swamj) till near the middle of 

 the afternoon, following up my own back 

 track. IIow many times it crossed and re- 

 crossed itself I don't know, but it was a good 

 many. I was pondering the likelihood of 

 another night out when I caught sight of a 

 Col inorant perched some ways ahead, and as 

 1 passed him by I took a backward look and 

 behold ! he was perched on the stern of my 

 boat just exactly as I left him the morning 

 before. 



There is a weird tale amongst the country 

 people about the "'loss bush." No one knows 

 tlie "loss bush" till he strikes bis foot 

 against it and then he is certain to get lost. I 

 have concluded that Mangroves are all "loss 

 bushes." 



Sohcrt Cin-zon. 



Curious " Sets of Eggs. 



Referring to a cm-ious flnd, reported by 

 .Sniithwick, puts me in mind of a new nest of the 

 Flicker which I examined some seasons ago. 

 It contained several eggs of the English Sparrow, 

 together with a fresh one of the Flicker. The 

 Flicker was near the west, as was also the 

 Sparrow. 



But a "find" wliicli I consider fully as 

 curious as Mr. Smithwick's consisted of a 

 Song Sparrow's nest containing four eggs of 

 that bird and two of the Maryland Yellow- 

 throat. Flushed Sparrow from nest, which was 

 placed slightly al)ovc the ground between 

 weed stalk, in a meadow. 



Examined several hundred nests of the 

 English Sparrow this season, and secured from 

 one an almost perfect albino setof five eggs, two 

 of them being as white as .Martin's. 



What do you tliink of a Yellow-breasted Chat 

 and a Catbird, nesting within a foot of eacdi 

 other, on a blai^kberry bush? 



Have found double yolk Wren and Catbird 

 eggs. C. \V. Cr.xmlall. 



Nesting of the Winter Wren. 



As some of my observations regarding this 

 species (Troylodytes hiemalis) and its nesting 

 habits have already appeared in the columns 

 of the O. & O., I will now chiefly confine my 

 remarks to my experience of the seasons of 

 1890. The thrilling song notes of this wood- 

 land Wren were first heard by me in the spring 

 of this year in a piece of swamjiy woods on 

 the northeast corner of Wildwood on the 9th 

 of April. It may have arrived in this vicinity 

 a week or more earlier, for the weather was 

 sufficiently open, and it and the Brown Creeper 

 are well known to be the first of the minor 

 woodland birds of Ontario to affect its chosen 

 haunts with its presence and its song, at the 

 earliest opening of the spring; but not being 

 near its home, I had not been cheered before 

 that date by its enlivening lays. A few days 

 after, another was heard in full song among 

 the fallen brushwood on the opposite side of 

 the farm, where, on the 18th of the previous 

 November, I had seen and heard a specimen of 

 this species, the latest date on which I had 

 known this bird to occur in this country. As 

 I usually do in the early days of May, I took 

 a ramble in a piece of woods a mile south- 

 wards of this town, and saw several newly 

 made nests of this species in their usual nest- 

 ing places, i. e., the newly turned-up roots of 

 fallen trees, from which I had hoped to procure 

 some sets of eggs afterwards, but, revisiting 

 them on the 2.5th of that month, I was return- 

 ing disappointed, when I concluded to make a 

 short search in a piece of scattered woods to 

 the right of my way nearer home. Near the 

 outskirts of this wood, the newly turned-up 

 root of a medium-sized hemlock tree caught 

 my notice, and to it I directed my steps. The 

 tree in its fall had caught on a stub, so that 

 its top was still high off the ground, while its 

 root slanted like the half roof of a hut, the top 

 of which was seven or eight feet off the ground ; 

 and under this was a well sheltered nook. On 

 looking in. the nest of a Winter Wren at once 

 caught my view, for it was directly in front, 

 and towards the top of this natural wigwam, 

 and some of the vegetable fibers used in its 

 consti-uction hung downwards. Altogether it 

 was less compactly formed, and more exposed 

 to view, than the nests of this species generally 

 are, and more dry grass and fibers of vine 

 stalks and small bramble were employed than 

 this bird usually makes use of. The greater 

 part, however, of the outer portion of this 

 ball-shaped structure was composed of the 



