56 



THE OOLOGI^T 



General Items. 



— The soug of the Homed Lark(7i'y'C»?- 

 opila ('orm(ta) is a low, rather sweet im- 

 itatiou of the soft chuckle of the White- 

 bellied Swallow, uttered at intervals while 

 the bird is feediuir. It also has a short 

 pit, which is emitted wheu the bird is sud- 

 denly surprised or frightened, or wheu fly- 

 ing. 



— I NOTICED the arrival of the Night 

 Hawks here on the 15th of June, and 

 migrations took place on the 23d of Aug- 

 ust. Formerly the Night Hawk used to 

 nest here on Mount Royal, but when the 

 mountain was made into a park they for- 

 sook their old nesting ground and now 

 nest on the gravelled roofs of houses in the 

 city. The latter habits of the Night Hawk 

 observed here I derived from my esteem- 

 ed brother oologist, Mr. Wm. Couper, of 

 this city, and from observations uf my 

 own. We had a very heavy wind and 

 rain storm a day after the Night Hawks 

 migrated. 



Montreal. e. d. w. 



[While residing in the city of Philadel- 

 phia we were unable to account for the 

 large numbers of Night Hawks that were 

 continually hovering o\er the city, until 

 we learned from others that their young 

 were raised on the gravelled roofs of ware- 

 _ houses. — /vV.] 



— August 1. Robins are flocking. 

 They are already frequent visitors to the 

 mountain ash trees, whose berries they 

 like. The ripe, juicy plums claim their 

 ."hare of attention ; while Robin's appetite 

 for grapes is as great as ever. He seems 

 to delight in just breaking the skin of the 

 grape, and after once plunging in his bill, 

 to let it dry up and wither. But not only 

 does the mutilated condition of the grapes 

 show his liking for fruit, but the whole- 

 sale destruction of the large dead-ripe 

 egg-plums brands him severely as a pilfer- 

 er. 



— We have noticed that the House 

 Sparrows destroy apple blossoms. Wheth- 



er they eat the blossoms or any part of it 

 or not we cannot say ; but from several ex- 

 aminations made, we found that the Spar- 

 rows plucked the vital part of the bud, and 

 thus of course killed the germ. This dis- 

 covery was not unexpected ; but it does 

 not strengthen the supposition that P(.isser 

 domesticas has proven an acceptable ad- 

 dition to our already more effective and 

 less obnoxious force of insect destroyers. 



Recent ^'ubHcatious. 



Illustrations of the JVests and Eggs 

 <>f ilte Birds of Ohio. — Since Audubon's 

 pencil and brush fell from the hand which 

 for so many years turned them to works of 

 unsurpassed beauty, nothing in the way of 

 ornithological art appeared in this country 

 to challenge comparison with the work of 

 the great master until, from an unexpected 

 quarter, the Illustrations of the N^ests 

 and Ef/gs of the Birds of Ohio were 

 laid before us by the Misses Jones and 

 Shulze, of Circleville, Ohio. Two num- 

 bers of this splendid work have appeared 

 during the past year, and the prospect of 

 the completion of the undertaking bright- 

 ens as the merits of the " Illustrations " 

 become better known, notwithstanding the 

 untimely death of the leading author on 

 the threshold of her enterprise. This work 

 is in folio, and is published by subscrip- 

 tion, in parts, each to contain several col- 

 ored plates of nests and eggs, of life size, 

 with sheets of descriptive letter press. 

 Combining as it does, the merits of fidelity 

 to nature with artistic excellence, this work 

 commends itself in an especial manner to 

 all those who have a taste for the beauties 

 of bird-life, as well as those who make 

 ornithology a study. — Elliot Coues. 



Nuttall Btdleti)!. — The readers of The 

 Oologist who have not yet seen the above 

 publication, should not hesitate, as, it is 

 without doubt the leading ornithological 

 publication of the times. It is under the 

 iu^mediate management of Mr. J. A. 

 Allen, Cambridge, Mass. and is published 

 quarterly, at $2.00 per annum. 



