12G Thr Wilson Bulletin — No. 71. 



sincere thanks to Mr. J. Claire Wood for liis generosity in placing at 

 my disposal liis set and notes. An extensive article about it has 

 been sent to the Auk for the benefit of the New England and New 

 York ornithologists. W. F. Henningeb. 



Red-headed Woodpeckers vs. Blx'e Javs. — On the 25th of October 

 of the past year, while walking through a grove of hickory and 

 oaks, I was startled by the sharp cry of a Blue Jay close above my 

 head, and on looking up became aware that a pair of Red-headed 

 Woodpeckers and four Blue Jays were engaged in a noisy encounter 

 over a large fragment of decayed suet, which had probably been 

 obtained from a neighboring refuse pile. The Red-heads were in 

 possession of the morsel and the Jays were doing their best to get 

 it away from them. The Jays repeatedly attacked and were re- 

 pulsed as often by the Wtoodpeckers, the latter^ easily dispersing 

 the assaulters by attempting to pierce the bodies of the Jays with 

 their sharp bills. The Jays' principal method of attack was to 

 singly pounce down near the Red-heads on the trunk of the tree 

 on which the AYoodpeckers had established themselves and utter 

 shrill cries and try to snatch the suet, but on finding that single 

 attempts were of no avail, rallied their forces and then made a 

 general advance, each adopting a different method of strategy to 

 gain the desired end. All their efforts were of no use, and after 

 almost a half hour of fierce battle, the Jays left the Red-heads 

 with their quarry and flew off, apparently much disappointed and 

 disgusted to the other end of the grove. Bearing in mind that the 

 Jays are not prone to give in quickly and are also quite covetous, 

 I remained sitting on a fallen stump just out of view of the Red- 

 heads and watched to see if they would renew the combat. Sev- 

 eral times a single Jay returned to the scene of the battle, ap- 

 proaching as quietly as possible until assured that the Woodpeckers 

 were still on guard, and then with loud calls flew back and joined 

 its fellows. This was quite an unique encounter, and the first ever 

 to come to my attention in which the principals were the Red-heads 

 and the Jays. Louis S. Kohleb, Bloomfield, N. J. 



Bluebirds vs. English Sparrows. — At Pompton Junction, N. J., 

 on February 2, I found a pair of Bluebirds engaged in defending a 

 deserted Woodpecker's home from the assault of eight or ten Eng- 

 lish Sparrows. The conflict continued intermittently until March 

 4, when the Sparrows went off to a neighboring apple tree and 

 established themselves there. The Bluebirds immediately began 

 gathering nesting materials and displayed indications of early 

 breeding. On the 7th the nest was found to have been completed 



