144 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Nam*' mislaid. — Your description of 

 bird is insutHi'icnt. It is probably 

 citliiM" tilt' l^ark Bmitiiitr or tlu> Bhu'k- 

 throated Bunting. 



J. H. S., Webster, Mass.— 1 . Your 

 egg of light-blue spotted witli brown 

 and blaek, nest like a '"Chippy's,'" eom- 

 posed of needles and plaeed in a pine 

 tree, the bird being quite rol)Ust, i.s 

 iloubtle.ss that of the Purple P'inch. 



2. See answer to lirst part of E. E. 

 H.'s query in this eolunm. 



W. A. B., New Sharon, la. — Your 

 liird with a blood-red l)ody, blaek 



low maj)Ie whieh was the home of mj' 

 "hooter." All :iround were the freshly 

 disgorged bits of fur and bones, but the 

 cavity in the tree eontained nothing. 



Was I too early? This was the ques- 

 tion whieh arose, but while I was eat- 

 ing a lunch, the mystery was exjdained . 

 Three boys came along and informed 

 rac that a "Hoot Owl" had been killed 

 in the woods a few weeks before. 



After making mj' business known, 1 

 was informed by one of the part}" that 

 he had often heard, during the winter, 

 an Owl hooting in a thin strip of woods 



wings and tail, may be a Scadet Tana- 1 , opposite his house. I knew the 



ger; although you ti>id lis notlHiig of its I j ii 



^jy,> " very spot, and as it was only a lew 



I steps out of 1113" route iioineward. I 



'L. S. D., Netherwood, N. J .—1. I started off for the place at once. 

 Your l)ird with greenish-brown l)a(*k, I Ai'i'iving at the outskirts of the grove- 

 yellowish-brown Nvings Avith Avhite ]j]^,. ^^ood, I examined the first hollow 

 spots, bright yellow under the siiould 

 crs, white superciliary line, and short 



tliick and powerful l>ill, the eggs being 

 blue spotted with yellowish-brown, is 

 the female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 



2. Cannot judge without description 

 of tile bird. 



G. A.. Aui)Ui-nilale, Mass. and 

 others. — Your descriptions are insuffi- 

 cient. A description of 'the liird is 

 gen(n"ally neeessaiy in order to get any 

 idea as to the identity of nests and 



Great Horned Owl. 

 ( Il/dx) vifyiniaiiNs. 



7. -S!), 

 >ut to 



b(^iiig a pleasant <lay, I 

 pay a visit to my Owls' 



started 

 ne.sts. 



My course, as planned in former 

 years, lay through several large 

 "striiis" iii heavy timi)er. 



A tramp of two miles brought us to 

 tlie lirst nest which seemed to be de- 

 serted. Anotlier mile and we met 

 witli the same disai)poiutmeiii at the 

 second nest. Tins was discouraging, 

 l)iit as tlierc was another nest two miles 

 farther on, I continued my tiresome 

 tramp i/ringing up, finally, under the 

 '>utspreading brandies of the old hoi- ' feathers. 



oak, Init found no Owl's nest. The 

 second tree, however, showed signs of 

 "life" as tliere was a feather adhering 

 to a splinter near tlie cavity, which v>as 

 about forty feet from the ground. 

 After resting a few minutes, I ix'gan 

 the ascent, climi)ing around on the op- 

 posite side of the tree as I went up. 



When within three feet of the nest I 

 looked up and could see the Owl's tail 

 projecting througli a large crevii'c. 

 Not wishing to frighten her very much, 

 I gave hei' tail a gentle jerk which 

 caused her to slowly leave the nest and 

 alight on a neighboring tree. 



The nest contained only one egg, and 

 fearing tlie nest was not complete, I did 



not remo\ c it. 



On the afternoon of the 2(ltli, I re- 

 turned t(« collect tlie set wiiicli I knew 

 ])}- this time would l)e com])U'te. This 

 was a cold cloudy day and as I ncareil 

 the tree the old Owl left tlie nest. 



Climbing up I was \cvy much tlisap- 

 pointed to lind the number of eggs had 

 not increased. 



The nest was a new one, composed of 

 a mass of leaves, twigs and Ijark nicelj' 

 hcdlowed out and lined sparingly with 



