76 



THE OOLOGTST. 



te ^ol 



DECEMBEH. 1880. 



C WHIR D. ( Molophrus < i ter. ) 



On the 15tli of May I found a nest of 

 Pciwae, {tSayornis fnscus), containing 

 thrje eggs and thrae eggs of Cowbird. 

 Will yju kindly inform me if the Cjw- 

 bird lays m^ra thui one egg during the 

 s^asjn? and if they deposit the egg 

 with bi'l or sit on the nest. 



Ernest D. Wintle, Mjntreal. 

 [It is diffi-'U.t t.) answer the question 

 of our corrjsp mdent with any degree 

 of accuracy. The Cowbird being very 

 luysterious in its habits, and at the 

 tim3 of laying are very qui k and dis- 

 plays much cunning, hence it is very 

 diffiouit to watch its m^vemants at that 

 time. It certiinly lays m 3re than one 

 egg in a season, bat how mmy we have 

 notyatdjtermiuad. It is generally sup- 

 posed to lay its egg in the natur.d way, 

 at least if there is any evidence to the 

 contrary we are not aware of its exist- 

 ence. If the three eggs mentioned 

 above w^re laid by one bird there seems 

 to be no reas 3n why they should not 

 baild their own nest and raise their own 

 yjung. The ilea advanced by the 

 Elitor of Whites Selhorne. for the Eu- 

 ropean Cuckoo that their eggs are ma- 

 tured so far apart (two to there weeks), 

 that they cannot incubate their own 

 eggs, probably holds good with our 

 Cow-bird, ki aiiy rate it is an in- 

 teresting subject for investigation. Mr. 

 Fred. T. Jencks writes us, that he is of 



the opinion that the egg is laid in the 

 nest in the natural way, and not by the 

 mouth, and from tlie number of eggs 

 found and the scarcity of the birds they 

 must lay a number each season. He has 

 found many nests with two and three 

 eggs each, and from the similarity of 

 those in each nest is of the opinion one 

 female laid them all.] 



Killing Rapatia. 



As some f)f our readers niay secure 

 live speciniens of Ilapatious birds and 

 desire a method of killing them, we 

 have extracted the following exjDeri- 

 ments from Familiar Science. The 

 first of which we had directly from the 

 exj)erimenters. 



How (not) to Kill an Owl. — We were 

 informed by a taxidermist who had pur- 

 chased a big-horned owl alive, that, not 

 iking the operation of killing, it was 

 h mded over to another party who took 

 a fork and struck it a heavy blow <.;n 

 the head with the handle, which pro- 

 duced little effect, when the prongs of 

 the fork were forced through the head 

 several times, and he was thrown down 

 for dead ; but on going to the office in 

 the morning his o>vlship was perched 

 on the back of a chair with a mounted 

 wood duck in h?s mouth, and having 

 destroyed mmy mounted specimens in 

 the night in hopes of finding food. Tiie 

 next process was a heavy dose of strych- 

 nine, which apparently had no effect 

 whatever, although he was left over 

 night. Then tirsenic was tried with no 

 better results, when a more positive 

 method had to be tried. On examining 

 the brain where the forlv had penetrated, 

 it was found that the brain was only 

 affected where the tines of the fork had 

 penetrated it, apjDarently being free 

 from all inflammation. 



How TO Kill an Eagle. — In our June 

 number, page 125, of last year, we gave 

 an item, "How (not) to kill an owl," and, 



