144 



THE OSPllEY. 



to tell; she suddenly alighted, ran a few steps 

 and then flew by me to cross a little lake (pud- 

 dle), with a young bird in her bill (not in the 

 feet as Mr. Merritt's bird was transported, but 

 in the bill). It appeared to me as if the young- 

 was carried by the neck. 



I waited awhile hoping that the bird would 

 repeat the performance with the second remain- 

 ing bird, but although she kept close at hand 

 while I scanned the few dwarfed blades of grass 

 which grew about the place, I did not get 

 another glimpse of the young. 



I have since then observed the young of this 

 species many times, but this is the only in- 

 stance in which I have seen them transported 

 by the parent. 



During all this performance I only noticed 

 one of the old birds, and it is not unlikely that 

 the male was off on a hunting excursion at 

 Sand-Lake, a quarter of a mile distant. — 



Bartsch. 



A Fkw Notes from Missouri. I have been 

 visiting the Chariton River, near Uniouville, 

 every spring and fall for several years, but 

 never until this spring did I find the Kentucky 

 Warbler except on rare occasions. This year, 

 however, it is one of the most abundant birds. 

 I have just returned from a two weeks trip to 

 that place, and in the last four days I found 

 three nests of these Warblers. These birds and 

 Yellow-throats were the only Warblers nesting 

 at this time, and only one of the Kentucky 

 Warbler's nests contained eggs. When I found 

 the nest on Thursday morning-. May 23, it was 

 just completed, and by night contained one egg. 

 Next evening two eggs, and one of the Cow- 

 bird's were found. As we were going to start 

 home that evening-, I went down in the after- 

 noon to collect nest and bird, for I had failed to 

 identify her positively owing to her wild nature. 

 I could not get a shot at her until about 5 o'clock, 

 as I could not get near the nest without her 

 flying, and she would not return while I waited. 

 By poseing myself behind a tree near which she 

 generally flew when leaving the nest, and hav- 

 ing one of the boys with me approach the nest, 

 I at last managed to secure her. On dissec- 

 tion I found one egg broken bv shot so the full 

 set would have been four. The nest was near 

 the river bank, in thick timber, placed in a 

 small hickory sprout which had a very prickly 

 vine growing about it. It was about one foot 

 above the ground, composed of very fine whin 

 grass, with a few leaves at the base; the other 

 two nests were on the ground, in thick bushes, 

 and were much more bulky than this one, and 

 composed largely of leaves. Two of the eggs 

 were faintly marked with red; one heavily 

 blotched at the larger end.— W. T. Rinker. 



We are sorry to state that the photograph is 

 not clear enough to permit of reproduction. We 

 hope Mr. Rinker will have better success in this 

 direction next season and will give us an ac- 

 count of his 1902 experiences with Geothlypis 

 (Opornis) formosa. — Ed. 



Attempted Introduction of Capercail- 

 zie. "Reciprocity in game birds seems to be 

 the doctrine just now being practiced by the 

 United States and Sweden," said a prominent 

 commission merchant of this city to a Star re- 

 porter recently. "Five thousand 'Bob Whites,' 

 in a lively and healthy condition, have just 

 been shipped to that country, at a cost of $3,500. 

 They have been forwarded in cages constructed 

 specially for the purpose, and the best hopes 

 are entertained that the birds will do well in their 

 new home, inasmuch as a few introduced in 

 Sweden last year on the estate of Count Lewen- 

 haupt at Fosslorjo have done excellently, endur- 

 ing the winter very well. 



"Not long ago Sweden sent us a number of 

 specimens of one of her most valuable game 

 birds, the Capercailzie. This bird is the largest 

 and noblest of the grouse family, to which our 

 Prairie Chicken and Pheasant belong. A 

 Capercailzie weighs as much as twelve pounds, 

 approaching in size the American Wild Turkey. 

 Extremely hardy, it abounds in the great forests 

 of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland, Russia 

 and northern Asia. It endures the severest 

 cold, often burrowing into the snow in very 

 bitter weather for warmth and shelter. 

 Whether they will do well in this country is a 

 question which it will take a longer time to 

 decide".- Evening Star. 



The Death of Francis Joseph Birtweli. re- 

 moves a former contributor to The OsprEY. 

 Mr. Birtweli had little more than passed the 

 threshhold into manhood, having reached the 

 legal age only last September. He was born in 

 September, 1880, at Loudon, England, but was 

 brought at an early age to Boston, Mass. He 

 passed through public schools of Boston and 

 thence into the Bussy Institute. In the summer 

 of 1899 he studied in the Biological Laboratory 

 of the Brooklyn Institute. The premonitory 

 symptoms of consumption which became man- 

 ifest while there compelled him to give up his 

 life in the east and he removed to New Mexico 

 in hope that the dry air of that territory would 

 prolong his life. He continued his studies in 

 the University of New Mexico and devoted es- 

 pecial attention to the birds of the territory. 

 He sought the objects of his investigations in 

 the open as well as dissected them in the closet 

 and it was in the attempt to secure a nest at a 

 height of sixty odd feet above the ground that 

 he fell and death ensued from his injuries. 

 He had arranged to complete a volume on "the 

 Ornithology of New Mexico" which was to be 

 accepted as a thesis on his graduation from the 

 University. Last May he was married to Miss 

 Olivia Morton of Iowa. 



Mr. Birtweli contributed an illustrated article 

 on "Aptosochromatism in Chrysotis levaillantV , 

 the Mexican Yellow-headed Amazon Parrot, to 

 theOSPREY for April, 1899, (iii. 113 117,) which 

 was highly eulogized by Doctor Coues. He was 

 also a contributor to the Auk and other period- 

 icals. 



