188 



THE OOLOGIST. 



armor of the insect seemed to to be 

 impervious to the attacks of the birds, 

 but the arrival of more sparrows fin- 

 ished the career of the helpess in- 

 sect. 



This is the first case coming under 

 my observation in which sparrows 

 were so pugnacious as to attack an 

 insect as large as the June-tbug, al- 

 though I have often observed them 

 attack house-flies upon the wing. 

 FRED T. THORPE, 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



Raine's Camp, near Lethbridge, 

 Alberta, N. W. C, May 24. 

 Dear Mr. Short: — 



My son and I came up here on a 

 collecting trip, and the hest thing we 

 have run across so far is a colony of 

 Richardson's Merlins, nesting in a 

 wood of poplars down on the flats of 

 the Belly River. There appears to be 

 about 20' pairs nesting here. We have 

 found some nesting in old Magpies' 

 inests, others nest in cavities of tree 

 trunks where old branches have brok- 

 en off, while a few nest in holes in 

 trees like the American Sparrow 

 Hawk. The female sits very close, in 

 some cases allowing me to climb half 

 way up the tree before she leaves her 

 nest. Then she flies out of the nest 

 with a scream and the male bird then 

 appears on the scene, also screaming. 

 The birds are so bold that they are 

 easily shot. The eggs are very beau- 

 tiful and rich in color and are of the 

 same character as eggs of the Euro- 

 pean Merlin, but average somewhat 

 larger in size. As you are aware, very 

 few sets of this rare little Falcon have 

 been taken by Oologists, and none 

 have been taken outside of Alberta. 

 This region seems to suit his habits, 

 and- the reason this bird hreeds in col- 

 onies is because trees do not grow on 

 the prairie; the only place trees are 

 found is in the sheltered river bot- 



toms. Therefore the birds for miles 

 around have to resort to the river hot- 

 toms and the old Magpie nests which, 

 abound here seem to offer them suit- 

 able nesting sites. This is the reason 

 so many pairs are found nesting so 

 close together. 



From here we go to Northern Al- 

 berta to the breeding haunts of the 

 Lesser Yellow-legs and Solitary Sand- 

 piper, and after that we intend to pro- 

 ceed to Banff in the Rockies to col- 

 lect eggs of birds that nest in the 

 mountains, and expect to be back in 

 Toronto about July 1st, when I will 

 write you a short account of our west- 

 ern trip. 



Yours truly, 

 W. RAINE. 



GAL ONE — Oologist 



Late Nesting of Song Sparrow. 



On Sept. 3, 190S, I found here a Song 

 Sparrow's nest containing one young 

 bird. On Sept. 12th, it was found 

 dead in the nest. Later on Sept. 26th, 

 I found in Sharon a deserted nest of 

 this species, containing 1 egg, which 

 blew as easy as a fresh one, and 

 whose contents seemed quite fresh. 

 This egg, it would seem, must have 

 been laid this month, as its contents 

 were not in the least rotten. 



SIDNEY F. BLAKE, 

 Stoughton, Mass. 



