THE OOLOGIST. 



159 



iiig uvei- the edge of the nest. I \v»!Ut 

 up cafefully, and \v;ls able to get witliiu 

 two feet of tht! uest l)efoi'e the bird tlew 

 off, lighting on a twig about a foot 

 above it. 



Taking a good h)ok, 1 wa.s able to 

 identify the bird a*i a White-eyed Viero. 

 The two Thru.sh's eggs were in the nest 

 and one egg of the Viero. 



Two days later when I went to the 

 nest, the Thrush's had hatched (incuba- 

 tion was far advanced when I t(K)k my 

 egg) and the Vireo's egg was gone. I 

 sat down a little ways from the nest 

 and in a few minutes saw the old 

 Vireos feed the young Thrushes. 



I would like to know if anyone else 

 ever noted a like instance? 



E. D. RovCK, 

 Tolland Co., Conn. 



DoWNV WoOL>FECKEK AND PeWEE. 



Al)out tht! middle of May of the pres- 

 ent year, I heard tiie cheery n(jtes of a 

 Downy Woodpecker for several suc- 

 cessive days, in a small tract of timber 

 near my home, and knowing these 

 notes to be those of love I concluded it 

 had, or at least would have, a nest in 

 the vicinity. 



So I kept a vigilant watch, and on 

 the 27th of the month, as I rapped upon 

 a tlea«l wild plum tree stul), I was re- 

 warded by seeing ALrs. Downy Hy out, 

 and, thinking it rather late in the 

 season for eggs of this species, I im- 

 mediately ' 'made way" into its nest, by 

 sawing off the stub ju.st above the open- 

 ing, when to my dismay the nest was 

 found to be empty. 



Sawing a thin jjieccfrom the stub 

 just sawed off, I placed it over the hole, 

 so that no person would notice it 

 except by close examination, and to my 

 joy, Mrs. Woodpecker did not either, 

 or if she did it "cut no figure" with her, 

 for on May 30th it had two eggs. The 

 next day another one was added, but 

 on June 3rd it was found to be empty, 



robbed l)y sonie animal or boy, and my 

 set of eggs was gone. 



At this time a Pewee had built her 

 nest under the jirojecting roots of an 

 oak over a gravel bed, only about ten 

 yards from the tree where the Wood- 

 pecker had built. On June 3rd, this 

 Pewee's nest had no eggs in it, but on 

 June 6th it had two eggs in it, which 

 exactly resembled those three that were 

 destroyed ov taken from the Wood- 

 pecker's nest. Those two eggs resem- 

 ble in every way, all the eggs of the 

 Downy Woodpecker in my collection 

 and all I have ever seen alike in size, 

 sliape and usual glo.ss of eggs of the 

 family Ficidae. 



My opinion of them is: When rob^ 

 bed of her tiiree eggs and her uest de- 

 stroyed, she, having no receptacle for 

 the other two eggs, deposited them in 

 the nearest available place — that 

 Pewee's nest. 



The Pewee laid no eggs, but sat on 

 those two for about a week and then 

 deserted them. On June 25th I took 

 them, and on blowing, the contents of 

 each were "dried up," in fact there was 

 scarcely anything in one of them. 



Soon after being robbed the Wood- 

 pecker began the excavation of another 

 hole in the same stub, about eight 

 inches lower down than the other one,, 

 and on June 14th I took a fine set of 

 four eggs from it. I have neither 

 heard nor seen the Woodpecker since. 



As I have before said, those two eggs 

 exactly resembled this set of four eggs, 

 OoLOGiSTs, here is a nut for you to 

 crack. I would be pleased to have 

 opinions expressed as to whether those 

 two were eggs of Downy Woodpecker 

 or nf)t. 



"WiSCONICUS," 



Dodge Co., Wis. 



Variation in the Eggs of Habia Ludoriciana. 



Although no material variation pre- 

 sents itself in the eggs of the Rose- 



