THE OSPREY. 



107 



"The nest hung- low from a tree, about 

 ten feet above a much-frequented road- 

 way, close to Ledg-e End Inn, yet the fe- 

 male bird showed little alarm at the 

 traffic passing- directly below her house, 

 which commanded a mag-nificent and ex- 

 pansive view. The nest was discovered 

 by Mrs. M. J. Donnelly, of Brooklyn, who 

 has spent several seasons in Twilight 

 Park, where her outdoor classes in bird- 

 study have been exceedingly popular with 

 young- and old alike. During- the present 

 season she has made observations of no 

 less than fifty-five varieties of birds in 

 and around the Park, and within an hour 

 and a half, on the Fourth of July, she 

 counted twenty-one species from the 

 porch of Cosy Cabin — my own abiding- 

 place, which has been made musical with 

 the song--birds, no doubt partly attracted 

 by the presence of ray wife's Java Spar- 

 row in his cage on the piazza, and also 

 by that past-master in bird-lore, John 

 Burroughs, who was a welcome gruest at 

 Cosy Cabin on the day in question. 



"Since the Park was established, in 

 1887, no one has been allowed to shoot or 

 injure any living thing within its borders, 



and this, no doubt, will account for the 

 number of birds, squirrels, chipmunks, 

 porcupines, raccoons, and other creatures, 

 who have g-rown wonderfully tame; the 

 birds nesting- under piazza roofs and fly- 

 ing- with food to their young- across 

 groups of a dozen people without fear, 

 while the chipmunks are so fearless 

 that they will eat out of your hand, and 

 in one cottag-e, whose owner is a veg-e- 

 tarian, and who larg-ely subsists on nuts, 

 they climb on the table after every meal 

 and help themselves to the family 

 store. 



"But to return to our preacher-bird. 

 After watching- the prog-ress of the fam- 

 ily g-rowth until the nestling-s had g-rown 

 strong- enough to fly, Mrs. Donnelly took 

 possession of the nest, and found, as 

 shown in the photograph, that it was 

 largely constructed of extracts from a 

 last year's number of The Outlook. Also 

 of strips of the bark of the yellow birch, 

 and it is a work of art in every respect. 

 The Red-eyed Vireo is a b2autiful song- 

 ster, and John Burroug-hs praises its me- 

 lodious efforts in 'Wake Robin' and his 

 other writings." 



Cobb's Island, Virginia. 



BY WM. H. FISHEK, KALTIMOKE, MD. 



COBB'S ISLAND has been for over 

 fifty years a famous resort for g-un- 

 ners and fishermen, and until late 

 years was a veritable paradise for the 

 oolog-ist; but between wholesale slaug-hter 

 of the birds by so-called sportsmen, dur- 

 ing- the breeding- season, and by those 

 taking them for millinery purposes, they 

 have become scarcer and scarcer, so that 

 now very few breed on the island. When 

 I first went to the island about twenty- 

 eight years ago, the Least, Common and 

 Forster's Terns nested there in colonies 

 of thousands, but now few of them breed 

 and the Least is seldom seen. During 

 four days on the island in May, 18*^^1, I 

 only saw one of the latter, and it was as 

 wild as an Oyster- catcher, which is a very 

 wild bird. The Royal Tern also nested 

 on the island at one time. 



Cobb's Island has many sweet memories 

 for me, and I am very sorry to see that it 

 suffered severely during the hurricane 

 that raged all along the line of the At- 



lantic coast in October, 1896, and as the 

 prospects are for an early dissolution of 

 the island, which, I presume most of our 

 collectors have heard or read about, but 

 possibly only a few have visited, I think 

 some notice of it will be of interest. 



Old Nathan Cobb (Old Nathan as he 

 was familiarly called), came from Cape 

 Cod on a trading expedition some fifty- 

 five or sixty 3 ears ago, and was so struck 

 with the surrounding country that on his 

 return home he had a small frame house 

 built, placed it on the deck of his schooner, 

 and returning to Northampton County he 

 set it on the mainland opposite to Cobb's 

 Island and opened a store to trade with 

 the surrounding people. After he had 

 been located there for some time, one day 

 a small colored girl was sent down to 

 make a purchase, but returning with 

 empty hands, "Missus," she said, "there 

 am no store down on the shore," and 

 when her mistress went down to see 

 about it herself she found it to be a fact. 



