402 



THE OOLOGIST 



little stubby bill of the Chickadee 

 seems ill fitted to crack the hard shell 

 of the sunflower seed, but he can do 

 it all day, as well as the Nuthatch can. 



The Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers 

 are an occasional Sapsucker, fattening 

 on my suet. The Brown Creeper en- 

 joys us apparently in his undemonstra- 

 tive way, but I've never seen him eat 

 suet. He slides past it and around it 

 but never touches it. 



Yesterday a flock of about 25 Cedar 

 Waxwings visited us and ate the ap- 

 ples left hanging. As this is their 

 iabit, they as cheerfully, politely, and 

 quietly left, as they came. Has any 

 bird such beautiful manners as the 

 Waxwing? 



On Christmas day a real Robin sang 

 a real Christmas carol in one of our 

 trees. We have heard of this occa- 

 sionally, but it is a rare experience 

 after all. 



Mrs. E. F. Gamble. 



Vireos in Southside, Virginia. 



On June 22d I was out for the first 

 time in the season, and although it was 

 late, I had hopes of locating some sets 

 of Vireos. Fully a dozen nests were 

 found, but in most of them the young 

 had been hatched and had flown. One 

 nest of the Red-eyed was found with 

 three eggs slightly advanced in incu- 

 bation, and one nest with four yaung. 

 Both of these nests were suspended 

 on the ends of small limbs about twen- 

 ty feet up. The first in a beech and 

 the second in an oak. 



One nest of the Yellow-throated was 

 found, four feet from the ground in a 

 small sweet-gum tree, with four young 

 in it. This is the first nest of the Yel- 

 low-throated that I have seen, al- 

 though the Red-eyed, White-eyed and 

 Warbling are fairly common. 



The White-eyed as a rule is the 

 more common of the three birds. The 

 majority of the nests of the Red-eyed 



that I have found since I have been 

 collecting, have been in small sweet- 

 gum trees near the roadsides and the 

 White-eyed and Warbling usually 

 build in thickets. 



Chas. Lungsford, Jr. 

 Petersburg, Va. 



Robin vs. Snake. 



Several days since while walking 

 along one of the streets here in town 

 I saw an interesting sight. I noticed 

 a robin on a lawn shaking and slap- 

 ping something about, and on di-awing 

 closer, saw that, the object was a 

 small garter snake about ten inches 

 long. 



After his snakeship was quieted the 

 robin picked him up and flew off 

 heavily. 



I never saw a robin tackle a snake 

 before. Possibly he thought it a giant 

 angle worm. 



R. B. Simpson. 

 Warren, Pa. 



Set of Black Rail. 



One of our correspondents wrote us 

 a few days ago that he had taken this 

 season, a set of eggs of this rare bird. 

 The letter has been mislaid, and we 

 wish our correspondent would send us 

 his name and address and as full a 

 history of the taking of this rare set 

 of eggs as he has time to furnish us 

 with, and we assure him it will not 

 again be lost. 



A Letter. 



"I see by the September Oologist 

 that I am called on for verification of 

 the statement I made in July Oologist 

 about the Little Blue Heron. As I am 

 cut off at the present time from all of 

 my field notes and books, I cannot 

 give any dates. Can only say that 

 I myself saw and identified at close 

 range, a Little Blue Heron. I will 

 give the exact date and place later." 

 George W. H. vos Burgh. 



