146 



THE OOLOGIST. 



table happiness and contentment, brings 

 to my miud a rather sad little incident 

 which came under my notice during the 

 autumn of 18i)0 while I was residing in 

 Ontario County. 



I do not remember the exact date, 

 nor have I the note book at hand which 

 records the whole instance, but it was 

 quite late, nearly all of the migi-ant 

 birds had left us for their winter resorts, 

 when one day, strolling in an orchard, 

 I chanced on a Yellow Warbler with a 

 broken wing, from all appearance fresh- 

 ly wounded. 



With some difficulty I succeeded in 

 capturing him, and took him to the 

 house where I intended keeping him 

 until he should be better. However, 

 he refused to eat all food which I could 

 px'ovide for him, and fearing that he 

 would starve I set him at liberty. For 

 a month or more he staid around 

 the house, unable to fly moi'e than two 

 or three feet, yet always cheerful and 

 full of life. 



What he lacked in wing i^ower he 

 made up in capabilities for hopping. A 

 large grape vine spread over one side 

 of the house and festooned its self about 

 my window. One morning while sit- 

 ting in my room, I heard some cheerful 

 remarks in a rather high pitched key, 

 nevertheless sweet, and social (what a 

 pity I did not understand the language) 

 and looking towards the open window 

 from which the sound proceeded I saw 

 little Dendroica perched on a sprig of 

 the grape vine, surveying me with evi- 

 dent wonder and curiosity. 



Without doubt the remarks he had 

 addressed to me were questions and he 

 probably thought me very unsociable. 

 Howevex", he was not discouraged with 

 this intei'view for thereafter he made 

 daily visits to my window and there he 

 would sit and watch me with the great- 

 est of curiosity while I wrote, dividing 

 his attention between this and his 

 breakfast (it must have been a slim one 

 at that sea.son) which he gleaned from 



the leaves, and during this occupation 

 he never failed to keep up a running 

 tire of rather absent minded sounding 

 remarks. He never sang, but these 

 questioning tones were moi'e entertain- 

 ing, because they Avere more musical 

 unlike anything I ever heard from a 

 Warbler. 



Gradually his visits became less and 

 less frequent and finally ceased and I 

 saw him no more. It is doubtful if in 

 his crippled condition he could either 

 migrate or stand the winters weather, 

 but let us hope the little musican still 

 lives. 



It strikes me that Bi-other Posson in 

 his enthusiasm over those "3430" songs 

 makes one rather reckless suggestion. 

 What is commendable in a bird may be 

 condemnablc in a human. He says, "O 

 what a lesson for us of the genus homo 

 to learn. If we would only look on the 

 bright side of things and do a little 

 more singing, etc." 



In his cheerful and ever contented 

 disposition we can not do better than 

 to imitate our little songster, but were 

 some of us, at least, to sing 3420 songs 

 per day, I am afraid that instead of the 

 world being "3420 times happier" it 

 would be that number of times more 

 miserable. 



B. S. BOWDISH. 



Wilson's Snipe. 

 {GaUinago wilsoni,) 



The sprightly little Wilson's or Jack 

 Snipe arrives in this vicinity from about 

 April 15 to May 10th, and are at times 

 very abundant. 



They are of a very tickle and nervous 

 disposition in many respects, especially 

 in the selection of feeding ground. They 

 delight in low marshy and moist ground 

 but at times, they will take a fresh and 

 frequent high bushy meadow, and will 

 even (as I, myself have observed) poke 

 or bore into the ground in the same 



