4(5 The Wilsox Jiui.i.KTiN — No. 02. 



one set of eggs each year from the Red-shoulderecl Hawks 

 nesting in a certain woods fifteen miles from London. Until 

 1900 all these eggs were large ; the last few sets averaging 

 larger than those of the Red-tail, but wdien in 1900 this hen 

 disappeared from the scene the bereaved husband took unto 

 himself a spouse who laid the smallest eggs I ever saw for a 

 Red-shoulder, smaller than the average Broad-wing. 



Now if it is the case, as it may reasonably be, and as has 

 been proved at times, that large eggs are from a large hen, 

 and vice versa, then, remembering that the female Red- 

 shoulder Hawk is larger anyway than the male, what a scene 

 of domestic infelicity is here hinted at and what decisive and 

 extreme steps the poor henpecked widower took to insure 

 that his next venture should be productive of less tyranny ! 

 Evidently there is no divorce court among the Buteos, or he 

 would have availed himself of it. 



Members of my family are confident, but not entirely 

 positive, of the identity of the Song Sparrow wdio visits the 

 bath daily and has lived much in our garden for three years, 

 and who has an invariable habit of scratching his head on both 

 sides, though chiefly on the right, while bathing. Nothing, 

 however, of special interest has been learned from this in- 

 dividual. 



A certain Baltimore Oriole, also a resident of three years' 

 standing, has been identified in the best way of all, by his 

 voice. He has a striking call note of two tones, dropping an 

 octave from F to F with the latter note staccato. Anxiously 

 looked for in the early spring, for he is surely Our Bird, he is 

 ever welcome ; and there is no grudge even though he punc- 

 tures and wastes a generous share of our ])luni crop, for he is 

 Ours. While his undiscovered residence is almost certainly 

 within one hundred yards of my garden I have heard his call 

 in numerous nearby localities, showing his range to extend 

 through a radius of about three or four blocks each north and 

 east, but on the west other Orioles are nesting and he has not 

 yet been heard there. To the south is a small park, about 

 200 x 400 yards in area, but, though one would imagine it to 

 be a very tempting home, he has not yet been noticed in the 



