April, 1889.] 



AXD OOLOGIST. 



57 



wintry sky, and sure enough, upon examination, 

 my companion discovered in tlie trunk of the 

 largest of these, about six feet from the ground, 

 an excavation. At my earnest request, she 

 climed up and peered in, reporting that the 

 liole vras fully two feet deep, and looked all 

 scratched. In my excitement I pulled her 

 away, and by dint of much scrambling man- 

 aged to get a peep myself. It was as she said ; 

 the hole was carved out in true woodpecker 

 style, and undoubtedly the bird I saw liad 

 flown out ujion being disturbed by the sound 

 of voices. Alice Eloise Adam.t. 



[We publish the above article, written by 

 Miss Adams, a student at the Wheaton Sem- 

 inary, and taken from the school paper, "The 

 Rushlight." Ornithological notes from the 

 young ladies, we regret, are rare. As showing 

 what mi;/ Jit be, we deem it worthy of repeating. 

 —Editor.] 



Killed by an Engine. 



One evening in September last, after the 

 arrival of the last train from Boston, drawn by 

 the Gen. Meade, in charge of the familiarly 

 known engineer and fireman, Al. Franklin and 

 Andy Meikle, a Ruffed Grouse was found in 

 the cow-catclier, still warm. As they came 

 through a small belt of woods between Conway 

 and North Conway it is supposed the bird was 

 flying across the track and a little from tlie 

 ti-ain, as she was struck in the back. 



A few weeks later the same engine struck a 

 Red-tailed Hawk which was flyiiig from them 

 in mid-day, and was thrown one side. Mr. 

 Meikle sent back by one of the section-men 

 and secured the bird, and the next evening 

 brought it to me to be mounted. Both birds 

 were struck in the same place, making a wide 

 black band across the back. This has never 

 occurred before on this road. 



./. Wnldn Nofih. 

 No. Conway, February 18, 1889. 



Nesting of the \Vhite-winged Cross- 

 bill. 



A pair of White-winged Crossbills {Loxia 

 letirnptpva) have lately built their nest near 

 our city. The nest, which contained, on the 

 sixteenth of March of this year, three eggs, 

 was built on a spruce tree about twenty feet 

 from the ground. The outer part of the nest 

 is constructed of small twigs woven together, 

 the inner part of moss and fine dead grass; 



there was no clay or feathers used in building 

 the nest. The eggs were white with brown 

 spots. The female was on the nest and al- 

 lowed a visitor to come within a few feet before 

 leaving it, when she joined the cock bird, a 

 fine red fellow who was singing on the top of 

 a neighboring tree. The Crossbills had been 

 unusually plentiful this winter near Halifax, 

 but I have never known before of an instance 

 of their breeding here. I do not know of any 

 other bird except the Raven that nests at this 

 season in this climate. Thorna.s I. Ef/an. 



Halifax, Nova Scotia. 



Spherical Eggs. 



One often reads about certain kinds of Owl's 

 eggs being "spherical" in shape, but when 

 they are tested by accurate measurements it 

 is found that they ai-e always a good deal 

 longer than they are wide. A truly spherical 

 egg has probably never been found, but a set 

 of eggs now before me is perhaps as good an 

 example of " spherical " eggs as any that could 

 be selected. They are eggs of Whitney's 

 Pygmy Owl {MicratliPne whitneyi) and were 

 collected on May 29, 1887, near Tucson, Ari- 

 zona. They measure .98x.92; .99x.91; and 

 l.OOx.98. To the eye two of them appear to 

 be almost perfect spheres. ./. P. N. 



An Owly Success. 



The following is a series of owls collected by 

 me last fall: Three Snowy, five Great Horned, 

 one Great Gray, two American Long-eared, 

 two Barred, one Little Horned. 



How is this for one season and for one col- 

 lector? Looks rather owly, does it not ? 



I also wish to record the capture of two 

 Canvas Backs {Fnligula vallisneria) in this 

 state. Both were old $ birds. They were 

 killed in Yellow Medicine county by L. F. 

 Sampson and Frank L. Perkins, while out 

 hunting for ducks last fall. Is not this a rare 

 occurrence of this bird in our state ? 



Albert Lnno. 



Cardinal Grosbeak in Last Year's 

 Blizzard. 



On March 14, 1888, or "Blizzard Monday" as 

 it is sometimes called, I saw a male Cardinal 

 Grosbeak {Cardinalift virginianus) in full spring 

 plumage, pluming himself in some large ever- 



