JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



19 



he kept his eyes on it, and as they were 

 swimming about playfully, suddenly the 

 male bird, who was always so ferocious, 

 and put up such a protest if a stranger 

 ventured too near the young, swam up 

 to the cygnet, and looking iu every direc- 

 tion to see if anyone was in sight, and 

 not seeing the keeper, he struck the little 

 one with his wing and broke his neck, 

 and sailed away as unconcerned as could 

 be. At last to their great surprise, they 

 had found out the secret. It was the 

 old male that killed the young. The next 

 year they shut up the male in the house 

 and they raised tAvo young Swans. The 

 next year they raised one, and this year 

 but one, and all they have raised seem 

 to be male birds. It seems very strange 

 that the male should destroy its off- 

 spring, but if the young are as they sup- 

 pose, all male birds, it would seem that 

 he kills them out of jealousy. This would 

 be in accord wnth facts observed among 

 some other animals. This is the only 

 reason I could suggest. It is interesting 

 the way they build their nests. In spring 

 when they are let out into the ponds the 

 male begins to gather sticks and starts a 

 nest in the water's edge beside the bank 

 of one of the lower ponds. But the fe- 

 male, not accepting that site, he begins 

 another on the land beside the water's 

 edge. Sometimes he has to start two 

 or three before she accepts it as a proper 

 place to breed. When he starts one that 

 meets her approval she then helps finish 

 it and the eggs are laid — generally from 

 four to seven. This year only four eggs 

 were laid, and but one hatched. The 

 nest was placed on the bank among the 

 thick alders and weeds that line the bank 

 of the lower pond, about four feet from 

 the water's edge. The nest w^as about 

 four feet across, and built up about eight 



or nine inches high, of coarse alder 

 twigs, some of them two or three feet 

 long, and some ^ inches in diameter, 

 lined with finer dead twigs. Through 

 the kindness of the keeper I obtained a 

 photo of the nest, and from the superin- 

 tendent I got one of the eggs for my 

 collection. 



Portland, Me., Nov. 10, 1899. 



Lincoln's Sparrow at Seguin Island, Me. 



CAPT. H. L. SPINNEY. 



My attention was first called to Lin- 

 coln's Sparrow by IMr. Arthur H. Norton 

 of Westbrook, Maine, who at the time 

 was visiting me. On the 11th of Sep- 

 tember, 1898, at 3 A. M., I noticed a 

 few l)irds on and around the light. 

 Wishing Mr. Norton to see this phenom- 

 ena of bird migration I called him, he 

 being in bed where every honest orni- 

 thologist should have been at that time 

 in the morning. 



There were fifteen oi' twenty birds, 

 mostly Sparrows, struggling to get 

 through the glass to the light. 



After watching and following them 

 around on the inside of the lantern for 

 some time, we went outside to see how 

 they would act. 



Climbing up on the walk which en- 

 circles the lantern, we were in a position 

 to force our familiarity upon our feath- 

 ered visitors, who resented it by trying 

 the harder to force the quarter inch glass 

 of the lantern. 



We had caught a number of the birds, 

 again liberating them to see how they 

 would act, when my attention was 



