September, 1892.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



137 



a railroad — a singular place for them to 

 select. It is probable they were influenced 

 in this choice by the condition of the wood 

 for excavation. A fine young Bald Eagle 

 was found alive with a broken wing, by 

 a brook ; a neighbor keeps him in a cage 

 built for him. He is not very particular 

 as to diet. He eats rats, mice, moles, fish 

 and dead chickens, being neither dainty 

 nor scrupulous as to its freshness. As I 

 have noticed for many years the Gold- 

 finches {^Astragalijius tristis)^ which had 

 been plentiful all winter and more so with 

 the addition of the spring migrants, dis- 

 appeared in early June and this year not 

 many returned at their breeding time. 

 They are very scarce this summer. I also 

 noted the absence of the Rose-breasted 

 Grosbeak and Bobolink. Not one made 

 its appearance on my meadows as usual ; 

 a few years ago they made these meadows 

 jubilant every spring with their matchless 

 inusic. Hoirv Hales. 



The Maryland Yellow-throat at 

 Raleigh, N.C., in Winter. 



On February 7, 1889, I killed my first 

 winter specimen, a 5 . As this was the 

 coldest day since Christmas, it could 

 hardly have arrived from the south, and 

 the occurrence puzzled me. 



Next winter I shot at one December 6, 

 1889, in a thicket on the creek, and from 

 January 14, 1S90, till the migrants came, 

 heard or saw one every time I chose to go 

 by a certain marsh or swamp which is 

 sheltered from the wind by rising ground 

 on every side except the south. 



Next winter (1S90-91) I again noticed 

 them around the marsh and killed a ^ on 

 January 8. As the whole marsh is from 

 one to four feet deep in water and the 

 Yellow-throats stayed in the heavy growth 

 of bulrushes and cattails that grew in the 

 water, it was only occasionally one could 

 a shot. The last two winters being milder 



than usual, I was curious to see if the 

 Marylands would stay through in a cold 

 winter and so watched them with renewed 

 interest last winter (1891-92), but they 

 stayed right on the same as before although 

 the weather was much colder, and now I 

 consider them as of regular occurrence here 

 in winter, though not common. 



C S. Brimley. 



Cerulean Warbler. 



On the 19th of June I took a set of four 

 eggs and nest of this rare Warbler. The 

 nest was built in an oak tree forty-five feet 

 from the ground and six feet out on a 

 small limb, and is made of very fine twigs 

 and grasses and lined with grass and horse 

 hair, the outside stuccoed with lichens 

 held in place by spider webs. Dimen- 

 sions of nest, external depth i/Jg inches, 

 width %!/% ; internal depth i inch, width 

 2, 1-16. The eggs are a light cream, 

 spotted and blotched with various shades 

 of brown and lilac over the entire egg, 

 forming a wreath at the large end ; three 

 eggs measure . 65 x. 50, and one .60X.50. 

 W. A. Davidson. 



Detroit, Mich. 



Large Set of Flicker's Eggs. 



On the 2 1st of May, 1892, I made pre- 

 paration for an all day tramp through the 

 woods of Philadelphia County. 



I had not gone very far, when I saw a 

 Flicker fly out of a hole in a cherry tree. 

 The hole was about ten feet from the 

 ground and contained five eggs. Three 

 days later I visited the nest again, and was 

 surprised to find three more eggs deposited. 



I went to the hole day after day until it 

 contained seventeen eggs. On the night 

 of the seventeenth day it rained, and the 

 next morning the hole was filled with 

 water. Is this not an enormous set of 

 eggs for a Flicker.'' J/. C. C. Wilde. 



Camden, N.J. 



