THE OSPREY. 



23 



I must not negflect to speak of the rang-- 

 in<r habits of the Terns, nor of their 

 hunting- exploits on the hind. 



Both Fostcri and Hirundo^ I imag-ine, 

 wander far from home, especially while 

 the young- are beings fed. In the Mille 

 Lacs reg-ion the Gulls and the Caspian 

 Terns were daily found at Farm Island 

 Lake, twelve miles from Mille Lacs, dili- 

 gently fishing-, around and across the 

 lake, and passing- to the innumerable deep 

 lying- and wood-g-irt lakelets, lying- be- 

 yond. Near Heron Lake are the beauti- 

 ful String- Lakes — the fring-e of their 

 burr-oaks charming-ly foiling- the sombre 

 undulating- prairie Ij'ing- hig-h above. 

 Hither the Terns made frequent journeys 

 daily, returning- (during- July) each with 

 a frog- or a fish, the latter carried invari- 

 ably by the g-ills, that is, with tail dang-- 

 ling- downward. And over my String 

 Lake marsh, of Bobolink and Marsh 

 Wren fame, the Terns were hawking- 

 incessantly, during- the day time, arriv- 

 ing as early as five o'clock in the morn- 

 ing-, slowly winging- over the g-rass tops, 

 often not over three feet from the g-round, 

 eag-erly scanning- the sphagnum and g-rass 

 tussock depths beneath. Frog-s, insects, 



and, very likely, Meadow-mice, were 

 their intended prey. And I can hardly 

 be wrong- in imputing to them the robbery 

 of nests also. 



The nest of a Marsh Hawk, containing- 

 five eg-g-s, had been left intact for photo- 

 g-raphing- in a strong^er lig-ht. Having- 

 drilled and partly blown the eg-g-s, I could 

 infallibly identify them. About a week 

 after the orig-inal discovery I found one 

 of them a hundred feet from the nest. It 

 had been recently dug- out of the top of a 

 sphag-num bog-, and plainly sucked by 

 beak-thrust and not by tooth-crush. I am 

 justified, then, in assuming- that a Tern 

 may have been the "orig-inal taker" of 

 the set. For had the eg-g- been hidden by 

 some other animal, how did the Tern 

 find it? And if the Tern hid it, is not 

 this an unrecorded but entirely plausible 

 trait of this restless bird? Who shall 

 say how man}- traits and habits 3"et un- 

 known, may be discovered throug-h 

 patient watching- of community-breeding- 

 birds b}' men enjoying- more of leisure for 

 such delig-htful studies than often falls to 

 the lot of most of us, who have bread and 

 butter to earn, and a tiny part of the 

 world's work to finish. 



Albinism, Melanism and Hybridism, 



BY CHAS. K. WORTHEN, WARSAW, ILL. 



Thinking it mig-ht be of some interest 

 to the readers of The Osprey, I submit 

 herewith a list of some of the curios and 

 interesting- "freaks" in the way of Albin- 

 ism, Melanism and Hybridism that have 

 passed thoug-h my hands in the past 23 

 years that I have been engag-ed in nat- 

 ural history work. Albinism as follows: 



American Robin. — One specimen, mot- 

 tled with scattered pure white feathers 

 throug-hout plumag-e, two that showed 

 a stray, white primary or tail feather, 

 from Iowa. 



Bluebird. — One specimen, not white, 

 but a very pale or bleached blue, from 

 Iowa. 



Brown Thrasher. — Occasionally one 

 with an odd white primary or tail feather, 

 from different localities, 



Yellow-throated Vireo. — One white 

 primary, taken here. 



Indigo Bunting. — A male, mottled, 

 with scattered white feathers, taken here. 



TowHEE. — Scattered white feathers in 

 tail and primaries, from Iowa. 



Field Sparrow. — One specimen, tak- 

 en here; pure white, with only a few scat- 

 tering- pale brown feathers. 



Goldfinch. — Two or more, showing- 

 scattered white feathers throug-hout 

 plumag-e, from this locality. 



Bronzed Grackle. — One specimen, 

 showing- one or two scattered white 

 feathers, taken here. 



Red-winged Blackbird. — One beauti- 

 ful specimen, a solid creamy white, with 

 under wing-s of a rich yellow-orang-e tint, 

 taken in Sang-amon County, 111. 



CowBiRD. — One with white primary 

 and one or two scatterings white feathers. 



American Crow. — One specimen, 

 nearly pure white, from this locality; one 

 specimen, a dusky white, locality un- 

 known. 



Blue Jay. — One specimen, a beautiful 

 pure white, solid color throug-hout, 



