204 



THE OOLOGIST 



a few nests in a tree in the extreme 

 southern end of the grove, but the 

 nest has been in this one particular 

 tree, near to and immediately in front 

 of the residence, nearly every year of 

 his lifetime. 



During the spring of 1918, Dr. Hill 

 had all the trees scraped and the cavi- 

 ties filled, except the one in this par- 

 ticular tree, in which was found a nest 

 and three eggs, with the Owl setting. 

 The workman who filled the cavaties 

 lifted the bird from the nest, partly 

 closed the cavity, both above and be- 

 low her nesting place, cut a new en- 

 trance for her and returned her to the 

 nest without the lease disturbance of 

 her incubating operations. The little 

 ones remained in the vicinity for sev- 

 eral weeks, and in fact were noted 

 there as late as September 5th. Dur- 

 ing the late spring of 1919 the same 

 cavity housed a nest. 



I thought this fact interesting in- 

 asmuch as several members of the 

 family are positive that this same cav- 

 ity has been used nearly every year, 

 as an Owl's nest since the home situ- 

 ated in 1861, and in those years in 

 which the nest was not in this tree, 

 it was the one not over 100 feet away. 

 Peter A. Brannon, 

 Montgomery, Ala. 



Getting Even With Mrs. Killdeer 



Although I had arrived at some- 

 where near that rather mystical period 

 of life termed middle age, I have 

 broken from all my past traditions. I 

 have become a feudist. I, who have 

 shone refulgent as a member of Mr. 

 Ford's late pacificatory mission, had I 

 been better known to fame, have sworn 

 a deadly, yet undying vendetta. And 

 this is how it all came about. 



One day last spring 1 started out for 

 a walk up the railroad track leading 

 out of our little village. I was at 

 peace with myself, with the world, and 



with most of all creatures contained 

 therein, so far as I knew, and life 

 never had seemed more pleasant or 

 more promising. 



But before I had gotten fairly out of 

 the yards the rude awakening came, 

 in the shape of a fluttering specimen 

 of, (I almost said humanity), Aegiali- 

 tis Vociferous — in common parlance 

 except Mrs. Killdeer who was labori- 

 ously dragging herself over the ties a 

 few feet ahead of me. 1 noted sym- 

 pathetically her seemingly helpless 

 condition and stooped to pick her up, 

 with no intention but to see if some- 

 thing could be done to alleviate her 

 crippled condition. 



Now, to me, it was a very strange 

 thing that happened. For when I 

 placed my hand on her she was else- 

 where. She was about six feet away, 

 and evidently was suffering from a 

 broken wing. It seemed a pity to 

 leave her to the tender mercies of the 

 first prowling feline that chanced 

 along, so I speeded up a little and 

 again essayed to come to her rescue. 

 But Mrs. Killdeer seemed a trifle coy 

 about being rescued, and once managed 

 to slip through the dragnet of my fin- 

 gers. She stopped, exhausted, a few 

 feet farther on, and I now noted that 

 it was the other wing that was broken, 

 and that she also showed marked 

 symptoms of rheumatism, with a 

 slight trace of infantile paralysis. 



In her thus decrepit condition it 

 seemed clear that this was a case for 

 the immediate application of the prin- 

 ciples of Oslerism. With this benev- 

 olent purpose in view I trotted along 

 the ties, and soon came up with the 

 afflicted one, this time sure of making 

 my capture. But here again my sensi- 

 bilities received a jolt. For, as Mrs. 

 Killdeer crept on ahead of me, I per- 

 ceived that all of my former diagnases 

 had been erroneous, and that the real 

 trouble with her was that she had 



