THE OOLOGIST. 



a spirit of hestitaucy was shown on his 

 part 



For the benefit of those who are not 

 familiar with this bird, I will quote the 

 following from "Minot's Land and 

 Game Birds of New England": 



About eleven inches long. Crown, 

 ashy-blue, usually with a chestnut 

 patch of varying size. Head, otherwise 

 white, with generally seven large black 

 markings, including one on the nape. 

 Tail, often surrounded by white; and 

 broadly (sub-) tipped with black. 

 Primaries, etc., l)lack with imperfect 

 white bars. Otherwise::— female, brown 

 above, becoming chestnut on the tail, 

 nearly everwhere black-barred. Be- 

 neath, white; breast (often butfy or 

 reddish, and) streaked with black (and 

 brown). Male, smaller, and with few 

 or no black bars or streaks. Wing 

 •coverts, ashy-blue (sometimes spotted 

 with black). 



From the above description the ident- 

 ity of the bird in haqd must be readily 

 established. 



The flight of the Sparrow Hawk is 

 weak as compared with others: indeed 

 it is never long-continued, but rather 

 at short intervals, and rarely at a great 

 heighth. One raaj'' at favorable times 

 observe them gracefully skimming over 

 the fields and meadow lands in quest of 

 food, which latter consists of small 

 quadrupeds, birds and — I am told — in- 

 sects. Often they may be seen pounc- 

 ing upon their prey with great celerity, 

 from the hjfty branches of a tree, or 

 other suitable positions. 



Except in rare instances, they select 

 for a nesting-place a natural cavity in a 

 tree, or an al)andoned excavation of 

 some (jf the larger species of wood- 

 peckers. Here, sometime.s on a lining 

 of coarse niateri;il, often on none except 

 that existing already, four or five eggs 

 are d<'i)()sited. While the latter can be 

 distinguished at a glance, still the var- 

 iation of even the eggs of a .set is often 

 A-ery marked, l)oth in respect to size, 

 and color. 



The extremes of a set of five in mj' 

 possession present the following meas- 

 urements: 1.44 X 1.13 of an inch, and 

 1.35 X 1.09 of an inch. The ground- 

 color in these differs from greyish- 

 white in some, to a sort of butt' in 

 others. One specimen is marked rather 

 coarsely with dark brown evenly dis- 

 tributed over the surface; another is 

 iieavily splashed, and blotched with 

 umber on the smaller end, while the 

 greater portion of the egg is Aery 

 sparsely spotted with a lighter shade; 

 still another is finely and thickly dotted 

 with cinnamon so as to almost conceal 

 the background of dirty-white. 



Although the Sparrow Hawks may, 

 in cei'tain respects, be of service to 

 mankind, this is more than offset by 

 their terrible destruction of the smaller, 

 and far more useful birds. It is for this 

 latter reason that little protection 

 should be accorded them by the true 

 ornithologist. 



Notwithstanding their faults, how- 

 ever, one cannot but admire their 

 pluck, and almost reckless courage, 

 their fondness of home, and their great 

 attachment for particular localities, 

 although repeatedly disturbed. 



An Observer, 



Conn. 



Annas Humming Eird. 

 (Troclnlus unnu.) 



One day in the middle of May [ went 

 trout fishing along a little mountain 

 stream, but not having very good suc- 

 cess, I turned my attention to hunting 

 bird nests. 



I had proceeded but a sliort (list.-iiice 

 when I heard a buzz close to my head, 

 and upon looking up saw a neat little 

 nest of the Anna's Hummingbird, which 

 contained two eggs. After a hunt of 

 about two hours I felt satisfied to return 

 home without any trout, but with five 

 nice sets of Hummers and several of 

 other species. 



