September, 1892.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



131 



with those powerful talons end the life of 

 his tormentor. 



By the side of this brook I again tlirew 

 myself down on a mound covered with 

 pine needles and watched for more birds 

 and smelt the fragrant pine trees. Here 

 the birds were not so plenty, and instead 

 of the song of the Sparrow and the wartle 

 of the Bluebird I heard onl}' the soughing 

 of the wind through the tree-tops, occasion- 

 ly intervened by the familar sound of 

 chick-a-dce-dee-dec-dcc. 



On my way home I noted a flock of 

 Juncos and heard another Yellow Ham- 

 mer calling from an old oak stub, which 

 I approached from the opposite side and 

 got almost directly under him before he 

 discovered me. But when he did he was 

 in a great hurry, and flying to a tree some 

 100 yards away he alighted again and 

 commenced his song, if such it can be 

 called. 



Before closing this article I want to add 

 my testimony for the Great Northern 

 Shrike. On dissecting one yesterday I 

 found his stomach filled with caterpillars ; 

 nothing else, although there was plenty 

 of small birds around near where he was 

 shot. C. E. Brozv//. 



Beverly, Mass. 



Belted Kingfisher. 



First observed this year on April 4. 

 Became common April 26. On May 2 

 a pair had dug a hole in about four inches. 

 On the tenth as the men were going to 

 work at the bank I dug it out. Hole was 

 six feet long and ready for eggs. 



On May 13 the hole (a new one, ten 

 feet from the first) had been dug in a little 

 over two feet. On the 20th I dug it out. 

 It was three feet long and contained two 

 eggs. 



On the 22d I found that the birds had 

 started a new hole near the others, in fact, 

 between the two, and had dug in about 



eight inches. On June 2 I dug this hole 

 out. The hole went in just four feet and 

 contained three eggs. 



On the 6th of June I dug out the fourth 

 and last hole. It was about one hundred 

 feet from the others and was just ready for 

 eggs. This hole went in a few inches 

 over six feet. 



Between the second and third holes the 

 birds dug another hole a few inches deep, 

 but struck a rock and had to try again. 



Arthur ^[. Farmer. 



Amoskeag, N.H. 



The Rose-breasted Grosbeak in 

 Oakland County, Mich. 



The article in the July, 1S91, Ornithol- 

 ogist AND OoLOGiST regarding the Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak in Washtenaw County, 

 Mich., puzzles and surprises me. 



The northwest corner of Washtenaw 

 County is some thirty miles southwest of 

 my residence in eastern Oakland County 

 and Ann Arbor some fifty miles, both dis- 

 tances /// a straii^ht tine^ Washtenaw 

 County bordering Oakland County on the 

 southwest, and the Huron River, men- 

 tioned in the article just noticed, one of 

 the rivers that flow from some of the 350 

 lakes found in Oakland County. 



A great range of hills (geologically 

 called a morraine) rising from 600 to 1200 

 feet above the sea level crosses southeast 

 Michigan, passing through both counties. 

 I am on the eastern slope of that range 

 and Huron River rises on the same slope. 



The article above noticed conveys the 

 idea that the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is 

 very rare in Wasbtenaw County, even in 

 the north. This is news to me, for in 

 eastern Oakland County and in Macomb 

 County it is one of the most common 

 birds, and a peculiar change in the habits 

 of this bird and the Scarlet Tanager was 

 noticed by me in the Oologist for April, 

 1S90, that of leaving their forest haunts 

 and taking their abode in villages and 



