i6 



THE YOUNG OOLOGIST. 



Corresponcence. 



FROM PENNSYLVANIA. 



I am taking notes on the migration of 

 birds, for tlie Ornithologists' Union. The 

 following are a few of the " notes " taken. 

 You are welcome to all that I can give, and 

 I think your scheme a most excellent one. 

 The Young Oologist is doing more for 

 oology than any journal or society yet 

 founded. 



Feb. 17. About 20 Am. Titlarks noticed 

 on the snow and ice. Clear, 

 Feb. 20. One Song Sparrow. 

 Feb. 23. Saw one Am. Goldfinch in 

 winter plumage. Slightly warmer, 



Feb. 2G. Snow yet on ground. Two 

 flocks of Horned Larks ( Shore Larks ) on 

 road feeding. They were quite tame. , 

 March 2. Two Field Sparrows. 

 March 1. Robins. 

 March 10. Killdeer Plover. 

 March 15. Purple Grackle— Swamp 

 Sparrows. 



March 16. Chipping Sparrows in small 

 flocks 



March 17. Bluebirds, Red-and-buff- 

 shouldered Blackbirds. 



March 20. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. 

 March 37. First nest, containing four 

 fresh eggs of the common Crow taken to- 

 day. Saw several Fox Sparrows. 



Noticed the Red-tailed and Cooper's 

 Hawk (here called "Chicken Hawk") this 

 spring. 



Feb. 37. Captured some Siberian Snow 

 Fleas on top of the snow. There is no 

 freeze in them. 



I do not send complete list of arrivals ac- 

 cording to your answer to C. K., Milwau 

 kee. 'Wis., in JIarch number. 



H. K. L., 

 Landis Valley, Pa. 



tips white instead of red. Our weather is 

 still chilly, and very few of our birds have 

 arrived as yet, ^\'ill let you hear from me 

 as soon as "l have anything worth noting. 

 Yours in haste, T. D. P. 



Savannah, Ga. 



FROM GEORGIA. 



I found my first nest for 1880 on JIarch 

 20th. It wa"s a Screech Owl, containing 

 3 eggs, incubation slight, female caught 

 and skinned, and on dissection found iJ 

 eggs in 3 stages of development, proving 

 that she would have laid 13 eggs in all 

 during the season. 



Cedar-birds have been quite numerous 

 here for the past month, and I had quite a 

 good time shooting them. I would like 

 for some of the readers of the Young 

 Oologist to tell me if they have ever seen 

 a Cedar-bird, such as described below, 

 "While out shooting with Mr. Geo. Noble, 

 a Taxidermist, the" other day, one Cedar- 

 bird was shot, which was different from 

 all the others I have ever seen. Breast 

 pure white, tail feathers on the ends 

 instead of being yellow, were white ; wax 



FROM NEW JERSEY. 



I received Davies Egg Check-list, find it 

 to be an excellent book, a great deal more 

 than 1 expected, also blow-pipe, which I 

 find to be excellent ; JIarch Young 

 Oologist at hand ; I received it at noon ; 

 in the morning I was walliing down the 

 street, on a tree not ten feet from me, was 

 a woodwecker, it was either a downy or a 

 haii-y woodpecker, but they resemble each 

 otheV so much, I am unable to say which it 

 was ; on the other side was an EugUsh 

 Sparrow, which every now and then the 

 sparrow would ptep around the tree. I 

 watched them for about two minutes, when 

 the woodpecker flew to another tree, the 

 sparrow following ; he was on the tree for 

 about a minute, when the httle bully flew 

 at him, driving him from the tree, across 

 the street, and around a house, where I 

 lost sight of them ; that brought into my 

 mind the idea of writing to you. When I 

 received The Young Oologist at noon, 

 1 found ilr, E. E. piece, askii-.g for the 

 opinion of other Oologists ; my opinion is 

 that they are little pests and ought to be 

 exterminated from Ameiica, at least I 

 myself have seen them attack the Cuckoo, 

 Cat-bird, Oriole, and even our domestic 

 pigeon, and drive it back to its cot. One 

 of our neighbors ne.xt door to us has a fine 

 large bird house, which is just packed with 

 sparrow nests. Last summer I was witness 

 to a fight between Purple Martins and the 

 English Sparrows, the sparrows gained the 

 battles and drove the Martins away. The 

 Bluebirds also have been driven from the 

 bird houses around our place, and any 

 person can see that it is not an insect-eating 

 bird by the shape of the bill, which is hard 

 and differently shaped from the general 

 insect-eating bu'ds. I think that if every 

 collector would take all the eggs, destroy 

 the nest and parent bird if possible ; it may 

 seem cruel, but it is about the best way I 

 know of, and it is better to destroy birds 

 which are of no, if any use, than have the 

 birds which cheer us with their sweet littie 

 songs and destroy the vermin which infests 

 our trees. 



Respectfully yours. H. W., 



Millville, N. J. 



Mr. Editor ;— 1 would like to say a word 

 about the English Sparrow. 



They are fairly over-running this town, 

 all through the public streets they build 



