September, 1893.] 



AXD OOLOGIST. 



129 



20. Eristnatura rubida. Ruddy Duck. 

 A common migrant. Dives well, often com- 

 ing up in the decoys when you are looking 

 in the air for your game. Easily secured, a 

 quick shot usually bags the whole flock. 



21. Chen hyperborea. Lesser Snow 

 Goose. Rather common migrant, though 

 rarely taken. 



22. £ranta canadensis, Canada Goose ; 

 Common Wild Goose, .^n abundant migrant. 

 Only a few are taken as they light usually in 

 the center of the lakes or fields, where they 

 are not easily secured. 



In the above list no Ducks are given as 

 summer residents where only an occasional 

 winged bird remains over from the spring 

 migration, as is not rarely the case. 



Ned HoIIistcr. 



Delavan, Wis. 



Notes from Maine. 



One day during last May I was told that a 

 boy had collected a set of Mocking-bird's 

 eggs. I immediately went to see him and 

 was shown an egg. It was one of four, the 

 others having been swapped off, as he told 

 me, and they looked to me, so far as I could 

 remember, much like the Mocking-bird's 

 eggs that I had in my collection. He had 

 destroyed the nest and refused to tell me 

 where he had found the birds : but I told 

 him to look out well for a second set, and to 

 let me collect it, as I wished to get birds and 

 all. When I next saw him, however, he said 

 that he had already collected the second set 

 and was saving them for me. I got the eggs 

 and also the nest, but the birds were nowhere 

 to be seen. On closely comparing the eggs 

 with those of the Mocking-bird's, I found 

 them entirely different, but not so much so 

 as to make me think them anything else. 

 Only a week after I found out that I had 

 made a bad mistake, for I found a pair of 

 Loggerhead Shrikes around the place where 

 the nest had been. The four eggs, when 

 compared with a set of the White-rumped, 



showed no difference at all. The nest was 

 declared a Shrike's on first seeing it and 

 without being told about it by a friend, who 

 is verv familiar with the breeding of the 

 White-rumped. It was placed in the middle 

 of a field about seven feet up in an apple 

 tree. It is made of horse-hair, cow-hair, cot- 

 ton, twigs, grass, string and feathers, one of 

 which on the bottom (outside) of the nest 

 looks as if it may have come from one of the 

 birds. 



On June 10 I collected a fine set of five 

 eggs of the Purple Finch. This bird is not 

 very rare, but its nests are not often found, 

 as they hide them very nicely in the top of 

 some thick tree in the woods. I found this 

 one, however, in an apple tree, while looking 

 for something else. It was utterly impossi- 

 ble to see the nest farther off than two or three 

 feet, so well was it hidden. 



June 10, a set of Blue-headed \'ireos was 

 found in a maple within fifty feet of my home. 

 The nest was only slightly pensil and was 

 about ten feet from the ground and seven 

 from the trunk of the tree. When I took 

 the set, the bird stayed on the nest until my 

 hand was so near that she hit it as she flew 

 up. Four eggs. 



On this day I also got a set of Least Fly- 

 catchers with six eggs in it. The nest was, 

 if anything, a little smaller than usual and the 

 eggs were almost crowded as they lay in it. 

 I never before heard of a set with more than 

 four in it. 



I also got last summer two sets of Indigo 

 Buntings — one with three, the other with 

 four eggs — and a set of Vellow-billed Cuck- 

 oos with two eggs. 



In writing before of the Loggerhead Shrike, 

 I intended to say that on April 21, 1891, I 

 shot a fine specimen, which is now in the 

 collection of Rev. Mr. J. B. Caruthers, of Ber- 

 lin Falls, New Hampshire. The bird was 

 all alone and seemed to be looking for prey 

 of some sort when I shot it. 



yoJin L. Goddale. 

 Saco, Me. 



