150 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 88 



lot and spent liis time feeding amongst the seaweed and drift on the 

 water's edge. Tliere were a number of Scaup du<'ks nesting in the 

 vicinity who manifested considerable curiosity and decoyed to within a 

 few yards of a number of us who were woi'king on the shore. They 

 seemed not to understand why their friend was so reckless. At night I 

 often found them together. 



And now I come to the end of my gallinule 's experience. One night 

 a strong wind came up from the northwest, the little box that had 

 served as a shelter Avas blown away and the next morning I found him 

 beating against the shore dead. I examined his wing and found one of 

 the wing tips to have been injured in a way that would have left him 

 unable to ever again Ay for any distance. 



I have since found this summer that the gallinule nests here in 

 northern Iowa, and after Matching the flight of the bird I figured that the 

 accident to the bird Avas a very natural one. Their flight Mhile rapid 

 is very low, especially is this true when flying over water. 



Milford, la. Arthur F. Smith. 



Miniature Earthquake. 



A few days ago, while cutting the upper limbs oif a large Ijurr oak 

 tree, we barely missed wrecking a whole family of wrens. On one of 

 the lower branches was a small bird house, in which a pair of wrens were 

 nesting. They seemed not to mind the noise of a couple of saws grinding 

 away above them but went on, totally oblivious of noise, feeding the 

 young and taking turns singing from the roof of their little domicile. 



All went Avell until an accident occurred, as accidents so often do. The 

 branch that we had figured on falling a certain Avay naturally fell the 

 other Avay; the bird house Avas hea\'ed from its bearings, spun through 

 the air some twenty feet, coming to the ground with a thud. 



I ran over to it, lifted the bottom off, pulled out the tAvigs which 

 formed the nest, being careful not to spoil the pocket of the nest. There 

 were six young, barely a Aveek old; they Avere not actiA'e enough to tell 

 whether they had been injured or not. The old bird who Avas Avith them 

 acted as though she had taken her last flight and Avas ready to give up 

 the fort. When she saw the crowd around her she essayed to fly, but 

 her head was evidently still whirling in such a way that she could not 

 balance. I placed her back on the nest, put the nest back in the house 

 and put the house on a porch roof some thirty feet awaj' at about the 

 same height from the ground. 



The mate to the injured one soon came back with a grub in its mouth, 

 hopped all around the old nest site for some Aa'c minutes, then suddenly 

 he recognized the house, Avhieh, by the way, he was within three feet of 

 seA-eral times, for in his excited flying he would land on the edge of the 

 porch where he had been accustomed Avithout seeing anything, but sitting 

 at the old nest site he recognized his old home and without further 



