42 



THE YOUNG OOLOGIST. 



upon which are laid the eggs, which are 

 very small and of a delicate pinky white- 

 ness. 



Few foes can injure the Sand ilartin 

 during incubation, because of the difficulty 

 of gaining admission to the nest. Man is, 

 perhaps, its worst enemy, for there is a 

 mi.xture of adventure and danger in taking 

 the eggs, which is irresistible to the British 

 schoolboy; to climb up a perpendicular 

 rock, to cling with one hand, while the 

 other is thrust into the burrow, and to 

 know that a chance slip will certainly snap 

 the invading arms like a pipe stem, is a 

 combination of joys which no well condi- 

 tioned boy can withstand. 



The Toucan is remarkable for its enorm- 

 ous bill, which is decorated with brilliant 

 tints of orange and black, scarlet and yel- 

 low, or red and green, varying in different 

 species. Whether this huge bill is the tool 

 with which it excavates its burrow, is un- 

 certain. It is said, however, that the young 

 of the Toucan, being liable to the attacks 

 of monkeys and birds of prey, whenever 

 the parent bird is alarmed, all she has to do 

 is to poke her beak out of the aperture 

 leading to her nest ; the assailant seeing so 

 huge a bill, fancies an animal of corres- 

 ponding size and hastily llees. 



Cii.\s. Miller, Jr. 



Queer Nesting Sites 



Editor Young Oologist : 



I have taken the Young Oologist since 

 its commencement in May, 1884, and I 

 value it very highly. 



Wishing to contribute my share, 1 send 

 following : 



" The story is~ that a coal vessel from 

 Newcastle put into Navin, in Scotland, 

 and while there two Sparrows were often 

 seen to alight on the top of the mast. 



" The crew thought nothing of this, as 

 Sparrows are a common sight everywhere. 

 But after putting to sea again these same 

 Sparrows were seen following the vessel, 

 and having reached it they took up their 

 old post on the mast. Crumbs of bread 

 were scattered on the deck to entice the 



Sparrows down, and they came to the feast 

 fast enough, ate heartily and then returned 

 to their favorite post on the mast-head. 



" They soon learned to come down for 

 crumbs as a matter of course. 



" When the vessel reached port a nest 

 containing four young was found on the 

 mast-head. 



' ' It was carefully taken down and placed 

 in a ruined house on the bank of the rivers, 

 and a gentleman who had watched the 

 subsequent actions of the birds, says that 

 they reared the brood as though nothing 

 had happened." 



I give one or two more incidents further 

 illustrating the queer places sometimes 

 chosen by the English Sparrows for nest- 

 building purposes. 



In the right liand of a statue of Daniel 

 Webster in Central Park, New York, a 

 Sparrow built her nest last year (1884). 



In the mouth of the stone lion in Charing 

 Cross, England, Sparrows regularly build 

 their nests. 



A bronze statue (which was, of course, 

 hollow), which stood in one of our cities, 

 was taken down recently andtln- inside was 

 found to have bten taken possession of by 

 Sparrows and Swallows, and every " nook 

 and craunj' " contained a nest. 



The statue represented Gen. .Jackson on 

 horseback and contained nearly fifty nests. 

 1 have a Natural History scrap-book 

 from which I get a great many incidents 

 of bird life, which not infrequently prove 

 very useful. 



Wishing success to the Young (.)()i.o(iist, 

 I remain Yours Resp't, 



W. V. O. 

 Providence, R. 1. 



A Brave Bird. 



While a pai-ty of ladies were chatting on 

 a piazza at Clifton, New York, one pleas- 

 ant afternoon la.st month, their attention 

 was attracted by the swift descent of a 

 sparrow-hawk. A moment later the pirate 

 of the air was seen soaring upw'ard with a 

 poor little chippy bird in his talons. The 

 ladies were not the only spectators of the 



