92 



THE OOLOGIST. 



at him. Then we went, to a doc-tor 

 who is quite a binl eranlc himself. He 

 told me the same and not until then did 

 I believe it. Some of my friends (c<.l- 

 lectors) do not agree with me and I 

 would, therefore, like to have the 

 opiiiion of the majorit}'." 



Uiuler date of April Tth, Clarence A. 

 Smitii, of Gainesville, Fla.. writes: 

 "Nesting is just begun here. Logger- 

 head Shrikes have finished building and 

 Mockingbirds have just begun. I took 

 a set of three Red-bellied Woodpeckers 

 to-day, also observed a pair of Red- 

 headed Woodpeckers making a cavity 

 iu a dead pine." 



On the 19th ult., ye Associate Editor 

 and E. J. Botsford, while enjoying a 

 ramble near Medina, found, iu a dense 

 thicket of underbrush in a marsh, and 

 impaled on a sharpened twig of one of 

 the bushes, a Robin's head entire 

 Only a lew rods away was an orchard, 

 ill which a completed nest of the White- 

 rumped Shrike had just been found 

 with the birds near by, and to them 

 was probably traceable the Robin's 

 tragedy. 



W. A. Merritt, Washington, D. C, 

 reports some early sets of Crow's eggs, 

 as follows: 



March 29, 1890. A set of four eggs of 

 Corvib,^fru(jii:orus. 



April 5th. A set of five eggs of Cor- 

 dis frngicorns and one <jf five eggs of 

 < 'orviis os.'^ifrdyHS. 



Percy Smith, Simcoe. Out., writes: 

 "A few days ago we uoticed that the 

 vegetaljles in (jur cellar were being 

 gnawed, presumably by rats. I set a 

 trap, l)Ut caught a Ijeautiful Flying 

 Squirrel. Length, 10 inches; extent, 8 

 inches. I made a skin of him. As 

 those little tVdlows have been in the 

 cellar other winters, I think that they 

 must hiljernate iu sudi places." 



Prairie Warbler. 



{I)f')idroir(i disc(jlor.) 



This l)ird rarely breeds here, but on 

 the 21st (jf May, 1888, I had tiie good 

 luck to hud one of their nests. 



While passing tln'ough an old tield 

 that had grown up to a thicket of sassa- 

 fras and other bushes eight to ten feet 

 high, I was attracted by the bird's 

 peculiar chirp. On looking around, I 

 espied the nest iu a small hickory bush, 

 about three feet from the grouud. 



The nest contained one egg then, but 

 in four days, the set of five eggs was 

 complete. 



The nest was a model (jf neatness, 

 very compact and deep, measuring on 

 the inside If inches deep by li inches 

 across. It is composed of grass, bark, 

 lint and down, from the milk-weed; 

 lined with horse hair, feathers and tine 

 grass. 



.The eggs measured .68 x .46 and were 

 slighth' tinged with greenish, speckled 

 with chestnut, with lighter shell mark- 

 ings in the form of a wreath, around the 

 large end. 



F. C. POINDEXTEK, 



Barthi, Indiana. 



Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 



I have not seen much in the OoLO- 

 GIST about the Rose-ln-easted Grosbeak 

 {Zamelodia ludovicidud) aiul as it has 

 been my luck to find several nests, I 

 write this article hoping it will be of 

 interest to the reatlers. This bird is not- 

 ed for its voice and Ijeauty. It is plump 

 and round. The male's head and neck 

 are black, bill whitish, wings and tail 

 white and black, the breast and under 

 wing coverts, rosy or carmine red. 

 The female's wings and neck are 

 blackish and olive bi'own; the under 

 wing cf)verts are yellowisli. The nest 

 is of a shallow^ structure, made of 

 twigs, etc., and is rather oval in shape; 



