DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 35 



performed the usual upward spiral flight forcing the Osprey 

 higher and higher and always sliding under the upper bird as 

 it would attempt to escape. Finally the Hawk, concluding that 

 further effort at escape was useless, dropped his fish, and as the 

 doctor expressed it, seemed to say to the Eagle, " Well, here it 

 is," and passed it down to the waiting bird who turned on his 

 side and seized it with his feet as it came along. In talking 

 this over later in the presence of our landlord he stated that he 

 had noticed that under similar cireunistances the Eagle never 

 followed directly down upon the fish but dropped below it and 

 turned over to seize it as it came to him. 



Leaving the Fish Hawk's nest, we gained the road at the top 

 of a sandy ridge and walked along through the oak woods, see- 

 ing and hearing numerous familiar species. A few Redstarts 

 vet remained, and several House Wrens were singing merrily in 

 tlie woods. The following day we heard them in another wood, 

 and 1 recalled that at Lewes, several years previous, I had found 

 this bird in similar situations. Coming out into the open field, 

 several Henslow's Sparrows were calling "switch it," their 

 notes having a decided ventriloqual effect, or at least seemed to 

 come from much nearer at hand than they really did. 



After doing justice to an excellent breakfast, we inspected the 

 grounds about the hotel and chatted with a gunner who landed 

 nearby after an earl}' trip to the marshes where he had bagged 

 seven Greater Yellowlegs over decoys. He showed us his semi- 

 domesticated Black Duck sitting under a bunch of grass, close 

 under a tree containing a Fish Hawk's nest, forty or fifty feet 

 back from the bay shore. He thought she was covering eleven 

 or twelve eggs, but she did not seem disturbed at our presence. 

 The drake and another duck were swimming out on the bay. 

 The gunner told us of the unusual abundance last spring of 

 Curlews, which from his description were, I judged, Hudsonian 

 Godwits, and I saw a pair of that species at Rehoboth about the 

 middle of May, 1906. 



Shirt-tailer seems to be the vernacular for the Red-headed 

 Woodpecker here as well as about Millsboro, where Mr. Rhoads 

 and I first heard it. Scroggin and Flying Fox are names for 

 the Bittern, although the former name may apply to a Heron. 



