74 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 17-No. 5 



at a little distance, using the material of the 

 old in its constructions. 



Certain autliors have stated that the e<is;s 

 are pure white in ground-color, but this is a 

 mistake, though it is barely jiossible that some 

 bleached or abnormally light-colored speci- 

 mens might appear white. I have yet to see 

 any specimens which differ appreciably, except 

 in diversity of marking, from this pattern : light 

 bluish-green, marked with clearly-deiincd 

 spots of a light rufous color, as usual rather 

 more thickly about the larger end. According 

 to my experience, they are as a rule five in 

 number in this locality, and very delicate and 

 fragile. The young are abroad with their par- 

 ents sometime in June, and these family groups 

 are commonly to be found lingering in or near 

 their old haunts until late in August, when 

 they depart for their winter quarters beyond 

 the southern limits of the United States. 



W. E. Clyde Todd. 



Beaver, IJeaver Co., Pa. 



[A fair-sized series of the eggs of this bird 

 in my cabinet exhibits a great variety of colora- 

 tion. As nearly all of them came from one 

 locality (Mississippi) it is odd that those col- 

 lected in Beaver County, Pa., and described by 

 Mr. Todd, should show so little variation. — • 

 J. P. N.] 



My First Set of Great Horned Owl's 

 Eggs. 



Sunday, February IGth, was a delightful day 

 to be out of doors. In the morning I had 

 taken an hour's walk in the southern part of 

 town, hoping to be rewarded by seeing my 

 first Robin or Bluebird from the sunny South, 

 but was disappointed as they arrived six days 

 later. 



During my walk I saw hundreds of the 

 familiar Chickadees {Parus atricapillus), 

 accompanied by the pretty Downy Wood- 

 pecker (Dri/obatcs i^ubescens) or Little Sap- 

 sucker, as they are called in our locality. 

 Nearly every one of the restless little fellows 

 were busily engaged in gleaning their multi- 

 farious food. 



In the afternoon Arthur Farmer called and 

 found me in my studio or, as the boys are 

 pleased to call my room, "Fritz's Museum," 

 busily engaged with my collection. We were 

 content to stay indoors until we came to the 

 drawer that contained Baptores' eggs. The 



prospect of adding another set of Hawk's or 

 Owl's eggs to the collection made us hunt up 

 our collecting boxes and start towards the 

 woods south of the town. 



What a delightful afternoon to be out ! Sky 

 clear and bright. Black-capped Chickadees, 

 Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers were plenty 

 everywhere. Occasionally a noisy Bluejay or 

 sombre Crow^ would show himself. We found 

 plenty of nests, but all proved to be last year's 

 and empty. 



It was not until we liad gone about four 

 miles south of our starting place that we found 

 a nest that looked as though there might be 

 "something in it." You can imagine our 

 surprise and joy when we saw two great horns 

 sticking \\\) out of the nest. It was the first 

 time that either of us had seed a Buho on her 

 nest. It is needless to s;iy that we were excited 

 over the two great ears, but we remained 

 (piiet. AVaiting for what seemed to us a long 

 time, and not noticing any movement, the 

 thought struck us that we had in our excite- 

 ment mistaken dried leaves for ears, and that 

 they did not belong to an Owl at all. To sat- 

 isfy ourselves we began hitting the tree with 

 sticks, but without success; then we threw up 

 sticks and stones and off she came, safely and 

 swiftly winging her way westward. Now that 

 we were sure that there was "something in it" 

 for us, we started to climb the tree. After 

 several attempts, with no better success than 

 getting half way u^), and all tuckered out, we 

 gave it up and started for home, sorry that we 

 could not take the treasure with us but deter- 

 mined to come after them next Sunday well 

 prepared. 



It seemed a mouth to me instead of a week 

 until next Sunday came. That afternoon, 

 three o'clock found four of us at the nest and, 

 sure enough, the Owl was on. 



I wanted to add Buho virginianus to my 

 collection, so instructed the boys to throw up 

 snowballs while I stood ofE a ways, gun in 

 hand, ready to shoot. Several snowballs fell 

 into the nest, but the Owl would not leave. 

 I got tired of holding the gun so long in one 

 position and put it down against a stump, 

 tiiinking there would be plenty of time to 

 shoot when the Owl got oif the nest, but I was 

 mistaken, — the Owl got away and I got left. 

 Now that I had lost my specimen we started 

 to get the eggs. We had brought climbing 

 irons and rope with us but they were of little 

 use because the tree had heavy and loose bark 

 that would peel off as soon as the irons struck. 

 The result was that it was very diflicult to 



