July, 1892.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



Ill 



Within, it is alive with minute tribes. It 

 woLikl chiiim an entomologist. Put your ear 

 to it and you can hear a distinct, murmurous 

 lium. It is the stir and movement of insect 

 life in many forms, matcliless in size, glorious 

 in color, radiant in livery, rejoicing in their 

 occujjations, exulting in their tierce but brief 

 life, most insatiate of their kind, ravaging, 

 foraging, hgliting, destrt)ying, building and 

 swarming everywhere and exploring every- 

 thing. Lean but your hand on a tree, 

 measure but your length on the ground, seat 

 yourself on a fallen branch, and you will then 

 understand what venom, fury, voracity and 

 activity breathes around you. 



Open your note book, the page attracts a 

 dozen butterliies, a honey-bee hovers over 

 your hand, other forms of bees dash for .\our 

 eyes, a wasp buzzes in your ear, a huge hornet 

 menaces your face, an army of pismires come 

 marching to your feet. Some are already 

 crawling up, and will presently be digging 

 tlieir scisssor-like mandibles in your neck. 

 Woe! woe! 



.\nd yet it is all beautiful — hnt there must 

 be no sitting or lying do.vn on this seething 

 e irtli. It is not like your pine groves and your 

 diinty woods in Enghind. It is a tropic world, 

 an 1 to enjoy it you must keep slowly moving. 



'• Locked horns are becoming (piite a fad 

 with the swells at the metropolis," said a 

 gent!ein;in the other day, " ;ind some of the 

 Adiiond \ck hunters an I guides are makingiiice 

 little sums by occasional sales of the cuiiosity 

 that is demanded. Yon see the old story 

 about the bucks that fall to hgh ing, and in 

 some manner get their horns locked so they 

 can't get apart and then starve. to death, has 

 taken a strong hold upon the romantic natuies 

 of many i)eople, and if they can only get a set 

 of locked horns mounted, they are happy. 



".So the hunters select nice horns that 

 correspond as to size and by the use of a 

 t>visted cord and case, spring them together as 

 if locked in their death embrace by the 

 maddened thrusts of fighting bucks. Then, 

 on account of their great rarity and the 

 difficulty of finding them, they are sold to the 

 rich curiosity hunter for a big price. His 

 friemls look in wonder and envy at them while 

 he recounts the story told him by the guide 

 who found their skeletons held together by the 

 horns and the earth all trodden down around 

 the place so solidly that vegetation had not 

 grown there in years, etc., and the guide goes 

 back to the \oods and fixes up another pair 

 for the next curiosty seeker." 



In the June number of the O. & O. there is 

 published a brief note entitled "A Strange 

 Bird Shot." This is taken from a clipping of 

 a Quincy paper and so amused me that I cut it 

 out and wrote on the back " can any one 

 identity this species?" As it appeared in this 

 journal one might infer that I had seen such a 

 bird when in reality I saw no such bird and 

 know nothing of tiie party or the occurrence 

 and meiely sent the clipping for the amuse- 

 ment it might afford. O. C. Poling. 



Quincy, 111., July 8, 1892. 



I took a set of Cardinal Grosbeak in the 

 neighborhood of Detroit, and thinking it would 

 prove of interest to Michigan collectors, I 

 thought best to write you, so they could be 

 reache<l through your paper, the O. & O. 



On the lUth inst., the set was taken. Three 

 badly incubated eggs constituted the clutch, 

 with dimensions as follows: one egg . 95 x. 75; 

 two eggs l.Oox.SO; color, a pale, yellowish- 

 green, dotted and blotched witli different 

 shades of brown and lilac principally at the 

 large end. The nest was made of weetl stalks, 

 grape-vine bark and cedar bark, lined with 

 line, round grass, and placed in brier bush a 

 few feet over a ditcli which ran alongside of 

 the road. Bii-d was seen and so identified. 

 Took set of Cerulean Warblers same date. 



ir. A. Davidson. 



On .Tune 12, l,s92, I found the nest of the 

 Phojbe cf)ntaining six iiicul)ated eggs. The 

 nest was situated in a boat house on the lower 

 rafter hardly a foot above the water of the 

 St. Clair rivei-. The parent bird would sit 

 here unconcerned about the swells from 

 passing steamers and hard winds. This was 

 certainly the most perilous spot for a nest I 

 ever saw and is the only set of six eggs taken 

 for some time. B. II. Swales. 



1220 Woodward Ave., Detroit, Mich. 



Smelling Powers of the Turkey 

 Buzzards. 



While camping last summer on Hogback 

 Mountain, in this state, between Jackson and 

 Transylvania Counties, I made an expeiiment 

 witli the Buzzard. 



Western North Carolina is not the home of 

 this bird, but it is occasionally seen flying high 

 in the air, going from one state into another. 

 While on Hogback, five thousand feet above 

 the sea, we often saw these birds pa.ssing 

 over at a great height. I had heard of tlie 

 very acute sense of smell possessed by the 

 Buzzard, and proposed to verify tlie statement 

 by actual experiment. We had the day before 

 bought a good fat sheep of a neighbor, and 

 after the cook had dressed it, I took the skin, 

 liead and entrails, and carrying them away 

 from the cabin, entirely covered them with an 

 old sack. The Buzzards went on their way 

 until the seventh day, when about nine o'clock 

 in the morning, we saw two circling about far 

 above tlie mountain top. We knew by their 

 movements they were hunting for something. 

 We watched them all day, and before five 

 o'clock in the evening they were both roosting 

 on the fence within ten yards of their long 

 sought meal. They surely could not see what 

 tliey were looking for and found it only 

 through the sense of smell. E. P. Jenks. 



Asheville, N. C, July, 1892. 



