March, 1893.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



43 



show fight when I was at their nest ; they 

 were \ery aggressi\e, swooijing down 

 through the tree, rather too close for com- 

 fort, while the eggs were being secured. 



I made no special effort to locate their 

 second nest. In fact, I seldom take second 

 clutches of any species. I am afraid, though, 

 the tem])tation would have been too great 

 had I found a second set of this pair, es- 

 jiecially if they had been of the same rare 

 tint. 



.Vpril, 1892, found me making fre- 

 quent visits to Sheldon Hill, with the deter- 

 mination of again finding the nests of my 

 Huteos, as I almost daily saw one or both 

 soaring high above the hill. I had looked 

 long in vain, and ^Vednesday morning, April 

 27, founil me standing in the edges of the 

 woods on the east side of the hill, after a 

 last thorough search, with no nest located 

 yet. Looking far across the pasture fields 

 to a timbered side hill bordering the Le- 

 banon Springs Railroad, I suddenly uttered 

 an exclamation of delight. Perched high 

 on one of the trees, in the margin of the 

 timber, was a big Hawk, and another was 

 sailing around over the woods. Bringing 

 my field-glass to bear upon them, I saw they 

 were Red-tails. I didn't have time to go 

 over and investigate then, but I went home 

 confident that in that particular tract of 

 timber was the coveted prize. Nor was I 

 disappointed, for on April 29 I visited the 

 locality and had been in the woods but a 

 few minutes before I found the nest, forty 

 feet up, in the first big crotch of a mam- 

 moth maple. At my approach the female 

 left the nest with a scream of mingled anger 

 and despair. A couple of saplings were 

 felled against the tree ; it's easier to go up 

 in this manner where the trees are as large 

 as this one was, even if you have got 

 climbers. Both male and female again 

 came back and showed fight, swooping down 

 through the tree while the eggs were being 

 packed preparatory to lowering them with 

 the line. I was delighted to again find 



them of the same emerald hue as the set 

 taken last season. They are of a deeper 

 shade of green than that set. There is no 

 particular difference in the markings of the 

 two eggs : both are specked, sjiotted, and 

 splashed over the entire surface with bright 

 reddish brown. Large, handsome eggs. 

 Sizes, 2.37x1.88, 2.42x1.84. They con- 

 tained large embryos. 



In addition to the above two sets I ha\e 

 still another green egg of the Red-tailed 

 Hawk. A boy living at Hancock, Mass., 

 just across the line from their town, early in 

 April, 1 89 1, set several steel traps for foxes 

 around the carcass of a horse, but caught a 

 pair of big Red-tails. He took them home 

 and put them into a box, where the female 

 soon deposited a single egg. This I pur- 

 chased soon after it was laid. Comparing it 

 with a series of Heron's eggs, I find the 

 shade of green as deep as the average eggs 

 of Ardca virescciis. Size, 2.32 x 1.79. 



Bciijaiiiiu Iloaff. 



Stephentown, New York. 



The Slender-billed Shearwater. 



There are several species of this genus of 

 ocean-wandering birds met with off the 

 coasts of the Canadian Dominion, but most 

 of these occur on the .Atlantic seaboard. 

 So far as present research extends, only one 

 species has been discovered on the western 

 coast of North America, and this is but of 

 rare occurrence on the shores of British Co- 

 lumbia. This is the Slender-bill Shearwater 

 ( Puffinus tenttirostris ), a species differ- 

 ing in the form of its bill from those found 

 off the Atlantic seaboard, though in its 

 modes of life and general habits there is lit- 

 tle or no difference. It is mostly found as- 

 sociated with the Fulmers or the larger 

 Petrels, whose habits, resorts, and general 

 modes of life are much similar, though at 

 times it is met with near the shores of lonely 

 i.slands, solitary and alone. It is a species 

 of consideral)le size and wide expansion of 



