8 



THE OOLOGIST. 



voluntary dodges seemed to worry her 

 into a nervous, unti'usting attitude to- 

 wards all animals. The young, how- 

 ever tame, never suffered themselves to 

 be taken in the hand and any attempt 

 towards the accomplishment of that end 

 reawakened their wild natures in a 

 twinkling. 



All day long the little fellows worked 

 for insects among the vegetables and 

 each night the hen led them to roost in 

 a small coop that had been placed near 

 the garden for their use. It was sur- 

 prising to note the activity of these 

 young birds in capturing their insect 

 food. I have seen one look up to the 

 top of a beet leaf, at least twelve inches 

 from the ground, and not only spy out 

 some tiny Img or fly as it rested snugly 

 protected from the burning sun, 

 but jump and get it and this before the 

 wings were at all grown out. Again, 

 one would jump several inches from the 

 ground at a passing insect, and. I have 

 seen them jump over each other and 

 turn over in the air themselves in the 

 midst of a frolicsome chase. 



And now after many weeks they had 

 grown to about one-third adult size and 

 had become well feathered out and 

 proud they wei-e of their little tails, 

 which stuck straight out from the snug 

 little ball of mottled feathers. Now, 

 however, came the climax. Just when 

 I had thought all trouble over, as the 

 little fellows had already- removed with 

 the hen to roost in the chicken house 

 with the other fowls, thej". began 

 to fly; first but a few feet, then a rod, 

 and at last across ihe lawn, if startled 

 suddenly. They would soon come back 

 however as if nothing had occurred. 



The cats, which had hitherto long re- 

 garded them as regular members of the 

 chicken yard, now began to look with 

 suspicious eyes towards the bii'ds as 

 they alighted from an occasional short 

 flight. Finally one was missed, then 

 two, three, foui", five, six were gone. 

 Several cats were disposed of until final- 



ly one of the best behared' of the fe- 

 line aggregation was seen to catch one- 

 of the remaining thi'ce. The cats were- 

 not to be blamed; they were but doing 

 what nature had intended them to da 

 or starve, and it v^^as but a short time 

 when all were gone to satisfy their ap- 

 petites for flesh and blood. 



Had I suspected that the outcome 

 would have been thus, I should have ar- 

 ranged an inclosed yard of wire netting; 

 for their protection. This would have 

 given them less freedom however, and. 

 the knowledge gained of their habits 

 would have been less satisfactory. 



However keen the disappointment ia 

 losing the birds, I am satisfied with the 

 summer's study of one of our most in- 

 teresting and well known game birds, 

 the quaint, old fashioned, neighborly 

 little Bob-white of prose and melody. 

 My experiments are not yet ended and 

 I hope to eventually succeed in taming- 

 if not in domesticating this cheery little- 

 table bird. 



L. Whitney Watkins. 



North West Notes for 1894. 



In comparing the dates of Hawks 

 nests found this year, with those taken 

 the last two years in Ontario I find that 

 the nesting season is from two to three 

 weeks later than it is in the east. In 

 Ontario all the large Hawks have eggs 

 by the middle of Api-il and I have never 

 found fresh eggs after the third week, 

 while here my first clutch, a Ferruginous 

 Rough-legged Buzzard, was nottakenun- 

 til the 2nd of May, and the first Swain- 

 son's three weeks later. On May 10th I 

 drove a few miles up the river and 

 found them still later there, every nest 

 but one was empty, and that only con- 

 tained one egg. 



The only trees in the country are the 

 Black Poplar and these are all found 

 growing along the river banks, so that 

 the only available nesting sites are 



