THE OOLOGIST. 



25 



Buntings b^' being darker. Hubits 

 same as the Snow Buntings. 



Pine Siskin. Noticed in company 

 with Kedijolls. 



Pih-ated Woodpecker. Found gen- 

 erally in tamarack woods. This large 

 and wary woodpecker is ver^' difficult 

 to get. These birds are generally found 

 far from civilization, and choose the 

 M'ildest places for their retreats. 



Gos Hawk. Rare. Observed several 

 specimens, one of which was pursuing 

 a flock of tame doves, which, despite 

 his frantic efforts managed to elude 

 Jiini. 



Pine Grosbeaks. Rare. Shot sever- 

 al males in red plumage. 



White-winged Cros-sbill. Obtained 

 several of these out of a tlock which 

 were feeding in the top of a tamarack 

 tree. 



Snowy Owl. Rare. One of tliese 

 birds remained all of last winter on a 

 ■rocky island in the river until I found 

 it out, and the t-hances are that he will 

 now remain for some time to come.in my 

 i;abiuet. Th.i Red-bellied Nuthatch, 

 Brown Creeper, Barred (Jvvl, Long- 

 ^ared Owl, Amerieait Crossbill and 

 Redpolls are common. 



. , W. i>E LA Bak !{!■:. 



Collecting Experience. 



May Ctii, about 10:30 o'clock in the 

 morning I left home intending to go to 

 a small lake a crmple of miles distant. 

 I was going to look at sonni (hakle 

 nests tiiiit 1 had found a few days pre\'- 

 ious. After walking along the ro;i(l for 

 ab()ut a mile, I climbed a fence aiul 

 started across a: field. I soon came up- 

 on a Mockingbird nest in a small bush. 

 Taking these, I proceeded on a short 

 distance and soon noticed a hcjle in a 

 dead tree a little in advance of me that 

 had a feather floating at the enti-ance. 

 This looked rather suspicious, so'^strik- 

 ing the tree with my climbers I had the 

 .satisfaction of seeing a female Sparrow 



Hawk lly out. On reaching the nest I 

 found it to contain four incubnted eggs. 

 The nest at sonjc remote time had evi- 

 dently been a Flicker's nest, but of late 

 .W'ars the Sparrow Hawks had had it as 

 their home in the far side of tlie same 

 held. I flushed a Fhn-ida Nighthawk 

 from the ground and was agreeably- 

 surprised on looking down to see two 

 eggs. When I blowed them I found 

 them to be slightly incubated. I soon 

 reached the lake and going round to 

 the south side saw a Sparrow Hawk fly 

 from an old stub and seeing a hole near 

 the top concluded at once that it flew 

 out of it. So strapping on my climliers 

 I started up and hearing a noise above 

 me, looked up and saw a Flicker leav- 

 ing the hole. However, I went on up 

 and got live eggs. They were not 

 smooth like Woodpecker eggs usually 

 are, but were exceedingly rough, some- 

 thing like Turtle eggs. I then went 

 down to the lake, got an old boat and 

 was bailing the water out when a 

 young colored bo3- coming down for 

 water hailed me.. "Ha dere white man, 

 haint you de one djit ^its bird eggs"? I 

 of course^ answered in the athrmatiAo 

 and asked if he knew of any. "Yes saw% 

 dere is a crow nest in dat i)ig ole pine 

 wonder, I jes no runded him of de nest 

 when I hit de tree." That 'big ole 

 pine" was not so \-ery big aro:inil, l)ut 

 was at least one liun<lre(i b-et high. It 

 was situated back up in the woods two 

 or three hundretl yards. I had to look 

 at the nest a long tinu' Ix'fore I could 

 mak^ up my mind to climb it. But fin- 

 ally I could stand it no longer. As I 

 saw the crow silently leave the nest and 

 fly off over the tree toi)s, so up I went. 

 The nest which was eomi)osed of sticks, 

 twigs, grass, ect., and lined with cow- 

 hair contained five eggs. Tliey were 

 a great deal smaller than the common 

 Crow eggs, and I am inclined to think 

 they are eggs of the Fish Crow {CorvKs 

 ossifrag?/s.) Putting three of the eggs 

 in my month and taking two in mj 



