THE OOLOOIST 



147 



two years old at least. Also earlier 

 in the season I found a Cowbird egg 

 lying in a field. 



Until this year I have never found 

 the eggs of this bird in Red-wing nests, 

 but in a little colony of some twenty- 

 five pairs of Red-winged Blackbirds, 1 

 destroyed eleven Cowbird eggs on 

 June 17th and six on June 27th of the 

 present season. 



Walter A. Goelitz. ' 

 Ravina, 111. 



Motes on the Chipping and Field 

 Sparrows. 



During the breeding season of llUT) 

 in the vicinity of Butler, New Jersey, 

 from June 1st to 30th, I located fifty- 

 two nests of the Chipping and Field 

 Sparrows, either with eggs well incu- 

 bated or with young a few days old. 

 Being very much interested in the bird 

 lianding movement, permitted each o'i 

 these that had not as yet hatched to 

 do so and kept a daily record of each 

 hatching so that bands might be 

 placed at the proper age on the youns; 

 ])irds. But out of all these nests, 

 bands were placed on only two young 

 l>irds, because of the nestling becom- 

 ing infested with a small mite similar 

 to that which attacks young chickens 

 and of the fifty-two nests one hundred 

 and sixty-eight young birds succumbed 

 to the inroads of these minute insects 

 at the age of three or four days. Forty 

 of these broods were hatched in nests 

 in scrub cedars. The remainder with 

 the exception of two were in smilax 

 and blackberry tangles and the last 

 two in huckleberry bushes. These 

 were the only two not to be attacked 

 rnd which survived. One of these 

 liroods were destroyed by a house cat 

 on the sixth day and in the other two 

 birds reached the banding age of six 

 days. 



This is the only record 1 have and 

 the only one that inquirers among my 



bird loving friends has brought to light 

 on this matter. Would be glad to 

 hear from other oologists and orni- 

 thologists in THE OOLOGIST who 

 have been fortunate enough to observe 

 a similar invasion of this species of 

 insects among the different small spe- 

 cies of the Fringillidae. 



Louis S. Kohler. 



Hunting Owl Eggs From a Boat. 



On February 19th, found Raymon 

 Graham and myself scouting around in 

 and out of the tree tops out to Lake 

 Worth looking for Owl hollows. 



Lake Worth, or better known among 

 the people of Fort Worth as the Reser- 

 voir, is in a large tract of bottom land 

 with the Trinity river flowing through 

 it. So the city decided to throw up 

 a dam or two and make a reservoir 

 of it. By so doing, the river soon went 

 out of its banks, took in all the trees 

 that could be found in the bottom, 

 leaving only the tops protruding from 

 the water, making it a cinch to collect 

 from a boat. (That is, the trees that 

 are smaller in diameter than the one 

 following). 



x\s I was saying, we were zig-zaging 

 in and out of the trees, keeping a 

 close watch out for good hollows. We 

 had gotten no more than two hundred 

 yards in the trees, when I happened to 

 cast my optics on a good hollow down 

 three hundred feet in front of us. Then 

 we put on full steam ahead. Just as 

 we neared the stub, the bow of the 

 boat hit it, and out flew Mrs. Barred 

 Owl. Right there a free for all scram- 

 ble liked to have taken place, to see 

 which would get up and see in the 

 hollow first. Raymon tried first to 

 get up to it, then 1 tried, tlien he, 

 then my time again. It had no limbs 

 on it, and was as slick as "glass, there- 

 fore neither could "coon it" up. All 

 this time our boat was doing the Hesi- 

 tation. 



