THE OOLOGIST 



868 



The Scarlet Tanager. 



On the 31st of August while spend- 

 ing a week in the Allegheny Moun- 

 tains near Uniontown, Pa., I came 

 across a very interesting thing. I 

 was walking through the small or- 

 chard when I noticed a Scarlet Tan- 

 ager behaving in a very peculiar man- 

 ner. It would cling to the side of an 

 old apple tree for a few seconds and 

 then fly to a limb and pick violently 

 at its tail. After I had watched it 

 doing this several times, I became 

 curious and went closer to see what 

 was going on. The bird was very in- 

 terested in what it was doing, so that 

 I was able to approach within a few 

 feet, and its actions were soon per- 

 fectly clear to me. There was a small 

 colony of little red ants in a crotch of 

 the tree and as there was no other 

 way in which to get at them, the bird 

 would let its tail hang among the ants 

 until a lot had crawled on it, and then 

 My to a limb and eat them off. I have 

 seen many examples of the intelli- 

 gence of birds, but this beats them 

 all. 



Thos. D. Burleigh. 

 Pittsburgh, Pa. 



I enclose clipping from San Antonio 

 (Tex.) Light, a daily newsi)aper, this 

 date September 9th, 1911. 



.Tust another sample of ordinary 

 newspaper-ornithology. 



R. L. Moore. 

 Save the Pigeons. 



From various sources of late have 

 come dispatches announcing the re- 

 turn of the passenger pigeon. This 

 bird, twenty-five years ago was one of 

 the greatest and most numerous game 

 birds of the country. Every year they 

 crossed the country in millions, and 

 they were slaughtered by the hun- 

 dreds of thousands. They suddenly 

 disappeared and until recently have 

 never been heard of. 



Unfortunately for the passenger 

 l)igeon he went from among men be- 

 fore the country had awakened to the 

 fact that it was killing game at a rate 

 that would soon destroy it entirely. 

 Consequently when the game laws 

 were framed they contained no men- 

 tion of the passenger pigeon. There 

 was no more reason for mentioning 

 him than there was for passing an 

 act to protect the dodo. He is now 

 unprotected by the law, and the hunt- 

 ers are hot on his trail. Of all birds 

 in America morally entitled to pro- 

 tection under the gan.e laws, the i)as- 

 Eenger i)igeon holds first i)lace. lie 

 is not numerous, and if the hunters 

 are allowed to have their way without 

 restraint, they will wii)e him off the 

 earth. 



Every state in the union should, ai 

 quickly as possible, pass laws protect- 

 ing the passenger i)igeon for a term 

 of years. Unfortunately the legisla 

 tures of the majority of the states are 

 not now in session, and they will not 

 meet for many months to come. In 

 the meanwhile the passenger i)igenn 

 must talce his chances. The case is 

 lampnta])le l)ut it is unavoidable. 



Runt Woodpecker's Eggs. 



In my collection I have many ab- 

 normal eggs, but in this i)ai)er, I shall 

 only mention my runt Woodpecker's 

 eggs. 



A set of four Red-headed Wood- 

 peckers eggs (set 14 coll. R. F. M.) 

 taken June 18, 1910, at Harrowgate, 

 Philadelphia County, Pa., by the writ- 

 er, contains one runt egg and meas- 

 ures as follows: 1.08 x .79, 1.0.^) x .80, 

 1.02 X .78, .83 X .68. 



A set of two eggs of the Northern 

 Flicker (10-2 coll. R. F. I\I.) contains a 

 runt and was collected by myself on 

 May 10, 1912, at Holmesburg, Phila- 

 delphia. They measure 1.09 x .84, and 

 .83 X .68. Notice that the runt is 



