THE OOLOGIST. 



87 



same size, though rounder. Audubon 

 speaks of their being placed four ft^et 

 from the ground ; but while this is some- 

 times the case, they are often er ten to 

 fifteen feet from the ground. It is easy 

 to tell even an old nest from that of 

 either a do^-ny woodpecker or black-cap- 

 ped titmouse, as the woodpecker lays 

 directly upon fine chips, without any 

 nest, and the titmouse makes a nice nest 

 of fur and feathers, and neither place 

 any pitch round the holes, while the nut- 

 hatch makes its nest of short fine grass 

 and protects with pitch outside the 

 hole." 



Feed the Birds. 



For many winters the Hudson family, 

 of North Manchester, Ct., made a prac- 

 tice of feeding the native birds in win- 

 ter, by fastening bones, fresh from the 

 slaughter-house, to trees. It is surpris- 

 ing what a number of chickadees, nut- 

 hatches, crows, blue jays, etc., will be 

 called together. Twenty or thirty blue 

 jays collected at one time near the house, 

 and finally become very tame. Birds 

 fed in this way, in most cases, remain 

 through the summer. We once count- 

 ed here three blue jays nests within the 

 space of one hundi'ed and fifty feet. We 

 tried this plan of feeding last winter, 

 and with success. It was interesting, 

 when the ground was covered with snow, 

 to watch the little insectivorous birds 

 clinging to the head of an ox we placed 

 in the top of a chestnut tree. Birds 

 learn quickly when they are protected 

 and fed, and they have means of com- 

 municating the knowledge to each other. 

 A daily paper tells of a farmer that fed 

 four little sparrows with oats at his 

 stable door in the morning, and at noon 

 found the trees of his place filled with 

 sparrows chirjiing for oats. They are 

 good time-keepers. Feed them with 

 crumbs and seeds in one place at, say 

 10 a. m. and 5 p.m. After a week, a 

 bird will not be in sight at 9 a. m. or 4 



p. m., bnt all will be on hand at the reg- 

 ular hour. It creates a great interest 

 for children- to have the birds fed where 

 they can watch them, and it affords a 

 chance for study for even old ornitholo- 

 gists. Try feeding the birds. 



That *• Woodcock." 



I notice in a recent number of the 

 " Oologist," reference made to a Wood- 

 cock being shot and movmted by a Ban- 

 gor Taxidermist, the bird's breast being 

 pierced by a stick. In response to an 

 invitation for more information, I quote 

 a paragraph from a very interesting let- 

 ter from my friend, Hariy Merrill, of 

 Bangor, Me., with that gentlemen's per- 

 mission. "October 9th, 1880. Got a 

 Woodcock the other day with a stick 

 about five inches long run through his 

 breast, which had healed up over it. 

 He was apparently all right and his pow- 

 er of locomotion did not seem to be af- 

 fected at all. I mounted him with the 

 stick in his breast just as he was shot." 



General Items. 



— Cuckoo's Nests and Eggs. By i-e- 

 ferring to my notes I find that on the 

 31st day of July, 1879, I collected a set 

 of four eggs, three of which were un 

 mistakably those of the Yellow-bill Cuc- 

 koo, while the fourth corresponded to 

 the egg of the Black-bill Cuckoo in size, 

 color, and also in that delicate, cloudy 

 marking which is common to the egg of 

 this bird. On this nest of eggs I found 

 a Yellow-bill Cuckoo sitting, while less 

 than two rods distant I found a Black- 

 bill sitting on three eggs. — Burt Cowles. 



— Barred Owl. A Barred Owl was 

 raised from the ground by a setter dog, 

 and shot Nov. 26. This was the second 

 one shot here within a few days. These 

 are northern birds, a large number of 

 which seem to have been driven south- 

 ward by the cold snap then prevailing. 



