THE YOUI^G OOLOe.lST. 



45 



Wednesday afU'rnoou, and this was con- 

 siderably lighter, less marked than the 

 first. What blotches there was were gath- 

 ered around the smaller end and run back 

 in long lines. 



The birds never made any attempts to 

 drive me off while I was up the tree and 

 I waited until Jlonday. the 20th. for an- 

 other egg, but thinking that the set was 

 complete and wishing to obtain fresh eggs, 

 I took the set on the afternoon of the 20th. 



I thought at lirst that the bird was a 

 Fish-Hawk, so I shot the female in order to 

 make sure. In the birds fall a large egg 

 about to be laid was broken, the shell of 

 which was clear sky-blue, and there were 

 ten or twelve distinct eggs of all sizes in the 

 hawk, three of them quite large. The 

 nest was composed of dry limbs and sticks, 

 some as large as broom-sticks. It was 

 three feet in diameter and about two feet 

 deep, situated only twelve feet from the 

 ground. Length of bird-wings. l,s.,50 ; 

 tail, 10 ; length. 2-t ; spread. 60. 



F. 31. DiLLE. 



Greeley Col., April 25, 1885. 



Sparrows ; A Plucky Hen. 



A Philadelphia man seems to have 

 found a method of getting rid of the 

 " Hoodlum." He was annoyed ver}- much 

 by the English Sparrows in the ivy along 

 the walls of his house. A bright idea 

 struck him. and he went to the store, pi-o- 

 cured a pound of pepper, raised one of his 

 garrett windows and scattered the pepper 

 among the ivy. The effect was instan- 

 taneous, for the sparrows quitted that ivy 

 in double quick, and according to latest 

 accounts have not returned jet. 



That is one way of getting rid of them. 



The following is an extract from one of 

 our county papers, and I send it to you. 

 hoping it may prove interesting : 



" Four miles from Aiken, S. C, at the 

 home of Mr. T. C. Harker, recently a ma- 

 tronly hen was cheerily clucking to her 

 downy.brood and industrious!}- scratching 

 for their matutinal meal when there ap- 

 peared in tlie sky overhead a huye hawk 



whirling in concentric circles. A sharp 

 note of warning from the patriarchal cock 

 hurried the feeding fowls to places of con- 

 cealment, and, followed by the sharp 

 cluck of the old hen, sent the infant spring 

 chickens scurrying beneath the protecting 

 wings of their mother. And none too soon 

 came the alarm. The next instant there 

 was a whirring sound in the air, and, with 

 wings clo.se into his bod}', coming head 

 foremost like a shot from a cannon, the 

 hawk landed among the panic-stricken 

 brood. But he had reckoned without his 

 host. The old hen had sand in her gizzard 

 and was true blue. With her wings ex- 

 tended and the feathers on her neck stand- 

 ing apart, she met the onslaught of the 

 bird of prey. No sooner had he touched 

 the ground than she was upon him. The 

 conflict, which was witnessed by several 

 parties, was as brief as it was brilliant, and 

 before succor could reach the plucky little 

 hen she had stretched the feathered pirate 

 lifeless at her feet. The hawk measured 

 just four feet from tip to tip, and was 

 carried to Aiken and exhibited. A lucky 

 blow from the beak of the hen entered the 

 eye and penetrated his brain. 



H. K. L., Landis Valley. Pa. 



They Had Reason. 



Editor Young Oologist : A line in the 

 letter of your correspondent H. S., on page 

 149 of your March number, attracts my 

 atteniou. "The people here (St. Clair 

 Flats) called it (an apparently hybrid duck 

 shot by him) a Breieer." It is a curious 

 fact that they have genuine high ornitho- 

 logical warranty for the name. On page 

 277 of Audubon's Synopsis, 1839, will be 

 found a description of "Anas Breireri :" 

 "Very nearly allied to the Mallard; one 

 specimen procured in Louisiana." This 

 has long ago been pronoimced not a good 

 species, and Dr. Coues .says it was no doubt 

 a hybrid Mallard, like the bird above. But 

 how came the Michiganders to have the 

 name /« fnmmon usi-? F. C. B., 



Fiamingham, Mai^s. 



