13 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. iS-No. I 



on February 8, a flock of ten feeding on 

 the horse droppings in the road. Seen 

 ahnost daily since. None were noted 

 during December and January. 



Our winter residents are all noted in 

 about the usual numbers. On short tramps 

 through wood and brush near the village, 

 I flushed Ruffed Grouse much oftener 

 than I expected to. It's a wonder to me 

 that we have a single one of these beauti- 

 ful birds left. Reason : this locality is 

 blessed with a gang who make hunting 

 for the markets a business. 



Indeed extermination has advanced rap- 

 idly during the past ten years. Last fall 

 I stood a sunflower stalk, crowned by a 

 mammoth seed head, up against the crotch 

 of one of the apple trees in the yard, and 

 for about a month a pair of White-breasted 

 Nuthatches have made daily visits to the 

 yard to feed on the seeds. They are get- 

 ting quite tame, and will come to the 

 stalk for seeds when I am standing so near 

 I could touch them with my hand. After 

 picking out a seed they fly to a large elm 

 twenty feet away, stick it into a crevice 

 of the rough bark, and then hammer it 

 open with their bill, devouring the con- 

 tents, seemingly, with great gusto and a 

 profusion of Nutiiatch talk. 



I noticed last winter that the Nuthatches 

 did not eat all of the seeds which they 

 carried to the big elm, but left many 

 wedged in the crevices of the bark. I 

 found later that they had a purpose in 

 doing this, as they made frequent visits to 

 the tree to feed on them until along into 

 the summer. 



February lo, while at Pontoosac Lake, 

 near Pittsfield, Mass., on a fishing trip I 

 noticed numbers of Crows sitting on the 

 trees along the shore. Now and then one 

 of them would swoop down near the holes 

 where the lines were set, and pick up 

 something. I soon found it was the dead 

 minnows they were after. A resident of 

 the locality told me that on the day before 



they stole two fine pickerel from one man. 

 We have only a small flock of English 

 Sparrows in the village this winter. The 

 Great Northern Shrikes nearly extermin- 

 ated them here last winter. Speaking of 

 Shrikes, reminds me that I haven't seen a 

 single specimen of borca//s this winter. 



Silence now reigns on wooded hillside 

 and in timbered swamp, where not many 

 evenings since the loud hootings of the 

 Great Horned Owl were heard nightly, 

 which tells us that Mrs. Bubo now covers 

 her treasures white, and that we must 

 throw business cares aside for a day afield, 

 if we expect to get fresh sets this season. 



The increase in numbers and activity of 

 the Crows, the peculiar, joyous notes they 

 are now uttering, foretell the near ap- 

 proach of spring, and warn us that ere 

 long there will be a break up, and we 

 shall be gathering notes on the Spring 

 migration. ISoijamin Hoag. 



February 20, 1S93. 



Early Nesting of the California 

 Thrasher. 



January 6, while hunting for Partridge 

 among the foot-hills, I discovered a nest 

 placed about eighteen inches from the 

 ground in a sage-bush. On coming near- 

 er a bird was noticed sitting on the nest, 

 which flew as I approached. It was 

 readily identified as a California Thrasher. 

 I was greatly surprised to find that the 

 nest was not an old one but contained three 

 eggs of this bird, perfectly normal in size 

 and markings. They were far advanced 

 in incubation, so far, in fact, that they 

 could not be preserved and the young 

 squirmed when taken from the shell. 



With this exception, the earliest record 

 I have of the breeding of this bird is April 

 34, when young were found old enough 

 when young were found old enough to 

 leave the nest, and the latest is May 23, 

 when a set of three fresh eggs was taken. 



H. .1/. H. 



Riverside, Cal. 



