THE OOLOGIST 



378 



a thick spruce and way out near the 

 end of a long drooping limb. There 

 was no way to reach it without injur- 

 ing the tree and as it was in the 

 cemetery I wouldn't do that, so passed 

 it up. 



Xumber 6 was also in a spruce. It 

 was eight feet up and eight feet out 

 on a lower limb. It was entirely fin- 

 ished and strange to say, the female 

 lay dead among the twigs on the limb 

 within two inches of the nest. There 

 was not a mark to show the cause of 

 her death. 



Xumber 7 was ten feet up in a hem- 

 lock and five feet out, and contained 

 three young several days old. As this 

 nest was found April 2Sth, this pair 

 must have begun early. 



Xumber 8 was found April 28th. It 

 was ten feet up and four feet out in 

 a thick spruce and held two badly in- 

 cubated eggs. 



Number 9 was twenty feet up and 

 fifteen feet out in a white pine. It 

 held three young just hatched. 



X'umber 10 was found ]May 3d. It 

 was in a white pine, fifteen feet up and 

 fifteen feet out. It held three or four 

 young just hatched. Couldn't get close 

 enough to tell for certain the number 

 of young. There seemed to be a full 

 set, although I expected to find four. 



The nests were neat and pretty. 

 They were well built and warmly lin- 

 ed. As soon as the young were hatch- 

 ed the old birds became very quiet and 

 have remained so ever since. Occa- 

 sionally I hear one sing a little or 

 hear a few flying over or meet a lit- 

 tle bunch along some road feeding in 

 the grass or on the ground. At such 

 times they are very tame and allow 

 a person to approach within a few 

 feet before taking flight. I made one 

 trip for nests back into virgin timber, 

 but although the birds were common 

 enough, I could not find a single nest. 



Possibly in the big timber they nest- 

 ed high up. 



It seems strange that these birds 

 should have nested so commonly here 

 this season, but I was certainly glad 

 to make their acquaintance as this 

 species and the Crossbill are two birds 

 I have always suspected of nesting 

 sparingly in the mountains, but had 

 hardly hoped to find except by mere 

 chance as they roam about so. 



R. B. Simpson. 

 Warren, Pa. 



Books Received. 

 Birds of Michigan — A list of all the 

 bird species known to occur in the 

 state, together with an outline of their 

 classification and an account of the 

 life history of each species, with spe- 

 cial reference to its relation to agri- 

 culture; with 80 full page plates and 

 152 text figures — by Professor Walter 

 Radford Burrows — special bulletin of 

 the Department of Zoology and Physi- 

 ology of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College, 1912. This voluminous work 

 of 822 pages is one of the best bird 

 books that has reached our desk in a 

 long time, and will without doubt re- 

 main for years as the standard ^lichi- 

 gan Bird Book. It is embellished with 

 a splendid line of illustrations, though 

 some of them are severely subject to 

 criticism. Most of them are very good. 

 The text is what it purports to be, a 

 condensed historj^ of the Birds of 

 Michigan, and is brim full of inform- 

 ation from cover to cover. We would 

 regard it as a necessity with all Michi- 

 gan bird students. 



The California Condor. 

 The half tone showing a mounted 

 specimen of this species and an egg, 

 appearing on page 362 of the October 

 issue should have been credited to R. 

 L. More of Vernon, Texas. We are 

 sorrv for the omission. 



