46 



THE YOUNG OOLOGI.sT. 



From Shelter Island. 



We huve liad a week of pleasant weather, 

 and the birds are becoming abundant. 

 Have noted the following arrivals : 



JIarch .5. Redwinged Black-birds. 



March 7. Crow Black birds. 



March 11. Robins. 



March 17. Took a Fish Crow. Rare so 

 far north. 



March 27. Kingfishers. 



March 38. Field Sparrows and Cow 

 Buntings. 



March 31. The Wild Geese took advan- 

 tage of a fair wind, and passed over in 

 hundreds, on their northern journey. 

 Ducks becoming more abundant. 



April 8d. Fox-Sparrows arrived and 

 heard the first Woodcocks. 



April 6. Saw four White-bellied Swal- 

 lows, sitting on a fence, apparently stupe- 

 fled by the chilly weather. 



April 14. Great Blue Herons. 



April 18. Spotted Sandpipers and Pur- 

 ple Finches. 



April 21. Common Crows and Jcreech 

 Owls Un-ing, 



April 33. Bi'own Thrushes and Barn 

 Swallows. 



April 34. Green Herons and Towhee 

 Buntings. 



I believe the birds migrate more slowly 

 on the coast than inland, on account of the 

 atmosphere being colder in the vicinity of 

 large bodies of water. 



Yours truly, W. W. W. 



From Kansas. 



Kdit'V Y'lMiitj (Jidiifiist : 



De.^r Silt — Your correspondent, N. A. 

 S. , from York, Neb,, is probably in error 

 in regard to the nesting of Woodhouse's 

 Jay in that state. Extreme variation in 

 the eggs of the common Blue Jay is too 

 common to base upon it the identity of the 

 eggs. Especially is this true when the 

 locality is outside the range of the bii'd to 

 which the eggs are assigned. 



He is also undoubtedly in error as to the 

 time of arrival of the Black-throated 



Bunting, which he notes as occurring 

 jVIarch 3. The Black-lhroated Bunting ar- 

 rives about the last week of April or first 

 week in May, and neeci- m flocks. Its songs 

 is the first evidence of their presence, for 

 it is in full song when it reaches us. Your 

 correspondent has, no doubt, mistaken the 

 Harris Finch for this bird. Harris Finch 

 arrives in flocks about March 1. It differs 

 radically from the Black-throated Bunt- 

 ing, but resembles it in having a black 

 throat-patch. It is a larger bird, keeps 

 about hedges and brush heaps, and has a 

 peculiar complaining song, from which 

 circumstance, as well as on account of the 

 black head and throat of the male, it is 

 called the " Jlourning Sparrow." The 

 Black-throated Biuiting keeps mostly to the 

 open fields, and the male seems to sing 

 throughout the day. There is no variation 

 in its song, which is repeated at short in- 

 tervals from the top of a weed or bush. 



The ' ' Moss-bird " referred to is. no 

 doubt, llie Blue Gray Gnatcatcher. 

 Yours truly, D. E. L. 



Manhattan, Kan., May 4, 1885. 



An Albino Crow. 



While going down White River in Indi- 

 ana about the first of Decendier, 1884, when 

 about seven miles below Freedom and one 

 mile above Farmers, on ihe Indianapolis 

 and Viucennes Railway in Indiana, I found 

 a crow, in every respect like other crows 

 only its feathers were white as snow, in a 

 steel irap caught to its toe. I took the 

 crow out and took it to Farmers, where I 

 found a man by the name of Dohme, who 

 stated that he had set the trap for the pur- 

 pose of catching the white crow, which 

 had been mated to a black crow and was 

 raising its young every season in thai local- 

 ity. I delivered the crow to the man and 

 he sold it to a doctor living at Freedom, by 

 the name of Minich. who gave |.5 for it 

 and sent it to his brother, who is a surgeon 

 at the Surgical Institute in Indianapolis. 

 Ask the edhor of The Yovng Oologist 

 what be thinks of this and let me know. 

 Your cousin, R. K. Y , 



Freedom Ind. 



The above was forwarded us by Mr. E. 

 Chandler, Eunka Springs, Ark. 



