148 



THE OOLOGIiST. 



wing, as well as the Red-tail and 

 Swainson hawks, do, occasionally prey 

 upon poultry. 



On July 17. 1909, while out in 

 search of a cuckoo's nest, I was sud- 

 denly surprised to see a hawk, which 

 I supposed to be a Broad-wing, fly 

 up from a patch of weeds just ahead 

 of me. Thinking that this hawk might 

 make a good specimen and hoping to 

 ascertain the exact kind of raptore 

 it was, I secured my rifle and, for 

 about an hour, sat huddled up in the 

 dense foliage of a nearby cedar-tree. 

 Then looking up 1 spied the bird care- 

 fully surveying the ground about his 

 prey. After about twenty minutes of 

 circling about, he sailed slowly down 

 on to his prey, a large, fat hen, which 

 he had killed just prior to my com- 

 ing. Waiting the chosen moment, I 

 pulled the trigger, and upon picking 

 him up, I found that I had secured a 

 large male in fine plumage of the spe- 

 cies, Buteo playpterus. 



Again on Oct. 12, 08, while on one 

 of my journeys thru the woods, just 

 as I was entering an adjoining mea- 

 dow, I saw a good-sized hawk fly up 

 from the ground a short distance away. 

 Going over to the place, I found that 

 a pullet had strayed too far from the 

 barn-yard and thereby had experienc- 

 ed the fate of many a rabbit. Noi 

 knowing what kind of hawk it was, 1 

 decided to set a steel trap beside the 

 part of the body that had been eaten 

 and covering well with leaves, I re- 

 tired to the timber to await the hawk's 

 return. In about twenty minutes the 

 bird returned and perched on the dead 

 limb of a nearby tree. Then after a 

 few minutes had past, he sailed down, 

 and on alighting placed both feet on 

 the jaws of the trap. Hurrying to 

 the scene, I found that I had caught an 

 immature Swainson, i)robably a fe- 

 male. 



On another occasion while looking 



thru a plum-thicket in search of a 

 Bell Vireo's nest, I noticed a large 

 Red-tail swoop down onto a full grown 

 hen, but being a short distance away, 

 1 succeeding in frightening him away 

 before he had killed her. 



JEROME BURNETT, 

 Nebraska City, Nebr. 

 Nobody has ever disputed but that 

 most of the larger hawks occasional- 

 ly take a chicken, and it is generally 

 known that the Broad Winged Hawk 

 is an injurious species, but the Red- 

 tail and its Immediate relatives includ- 

 ing the Swainson's, are far more bene- 

 ficial than injurious, and every per- 

 son who destroys any hawk of this 

 kind is committing an irreparable in- 

 jury to the extent of taking the life 

 of one highly valuable bird. — Ed. 



FROM THE ISLE OF PINES. 



Cuban Oriole (Icterus hypomclas.) 

 Length S in., wing, 3.4 in., male. Gen- 

 eral color black; shoulders, under 

 wing coverts, lower back, upper tail 

 converts and tibiae, bright yellow; un- 

 der tail coverts, black and yellow; 

 bill, legs and feet bluish, shading to 

 black. Female and immature, very 

 similar to other female orioles. 



This common bird is tamer and 

 more confiding than our Northern or- 

 ioles. It is usually found in little par- 

 ties of six to eight and may be seen 

 in the woods along the arroyas and 

 rivers and in fact any place but in the 

 pine woods. This Oriole is fond of be- 

 ing in porch vines and does great ser- 

 vice by destroying green worms which 

 generally abount in such places, and 

 when thus occupied it seems to have 

 but little fear of man and allows one 

 to stay close by and watch it. They 

 also sometimes come under the porch 

 roof to shelter from the storm. 



Zenaida Dove (Zenaida zenaida) is 

 our commonest pigeon. It is found al- 



