ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 17-No. 8 



My Experience with Visitors. 



We had company from a distance. They 

 were good old family friends of years' 

 standing. They came from a long dis- 

 tance, "to spend a few days." Of course 

 everyone, including myself, were delight- 

 ed with these good old-fashioned people, 

 jolly and courteous. My big collection of 

 eggs was arranged in a heavy cabinet that 

 occupied one end of the " sitting room," 

 protected in front by glass slides. I took 

 pride in showing my collection, and, as it 

 was really an ornament, my father also 

 delighted in telling our friends about the 

 eggs from all over the world, and his 

 especial pleasure was to get out my 

 Ostrich and Emu eggs and grasp them 

 an egg in each hand like a couple of 

 stones and clink them together, "just to 

 show how thick they were, you know." 

 Well our company had done as we ex- 

 pected them to, uttered their wonderment 

 at the novelties and expressed their delight 

 at the collection. When we came down 

 to a more minute examination of some of 

 the rarer and odder specimens, I noticed 

 that the lady of the party was just itching 

 to get her hands on the eggs, and I 

 thanked my stars that glass stood between 

 her fingers and my treasures. Well father 

 had clinked the Ostrich eggs to everyone's 

 amusement (including my own), and then 

 we reached my Black-chinned Hummer's 

 eggs and nests. You all know what 

 beautiful little downy puffs of nests they 

 are. I had just purchased a series of 

 them, with eggs, and unfortunately had 

 left them in a drawer, not as yet having 

 time to arrange them in the cabinet. I 

 shook with apprehensions as father very 

 confidentially handed out a nest apiece for 

 inspection. All at once an exclamation 

 from one of the party caused me to look 

 with a start just in time to see one nest 

 and its contents completely demolished, 

 and in the scramble to repair any possible 



damage another and still another followed 

 the first to utter destruction, while I 

 struggled to gather a very sickly smile 

 about the lower end of my face, as I de- 

 clared through lips that were parched and 

 dry that the damage was inconsiderable, 

 and for them to pay no attention to it, etc., 

 and I frantically endeavored to draw every- 

 one's attention to some inanimate and in- 

 teresting objects several thousand miles 

 away from that egg case. The moral 

 may be summed up as follows : Six brok- 

 en Humming-bird's eggs, three demol- 

 ished nests, one cracked Ostrich egg,, and 

 fifteen swears, the latter I added afterward 

 when they had stepped out. Don't ask 

 anyone to look at your eggs, unless you 

 have them under heavy French plate and 

 the doors all locked, " friends or no 

 friends." I give utterance knowing 

 whereof! speak. Experience is a good 

 teacher. W. C. B. 



Plymouth, Mich. 



Breeding Habits of Junco Hyemalis 

 carolinensis, Br. 



On July 5 of the present year, in com- 

 pany with my friend Dr. Henry Skinner, 

 I left Philadelphia for the mountainous 

 region of North Carolina, our principal 

 object in the ornithological line being to 

 investigate the breeding habits of the 

 Carolina Junco. We received good ac- 

 commodations at Cranberry, Mitchell 

 County, and from this point, which lies 

 3200 feet above the level of the sea, we 

 made trips to the surrounding hills and 

 mountains. Our longest trip was that to 

 Blowing-Rock, distance from Cranberr}» 

 32 miles. Part of the journey was made 

 in wagon and part on horseback. During 

 my two weeks' stay, with the aid of the 

 doctor, I located and examined 46 nests of 

 this sub species of Junco. Forty-two of the 

 nests were placed in natural depressions 

 in the bank of wagon roads, two were 



