26 THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
NOTES BY THE AWAY. 
Sparrow Hawks the past season have been 
scarce tnd have seen very few although I was 
in a section of country when they are, asa 
general thing abundant. In March I saw a pair 
preparing to nest about one and one half miles 
north of Oakgrove, in Bowie Co, Texas. 
I was told that this pair had nested for several 
years in an old oak stub and on the stub being 
pointed out to me I decided to keep a watch over 
them and procure a nice set as I had none in 
my collection of my own taking. After watch- 
them for several days, on April 19th I decided 
it was now about tin to mike an effort to 
procure the eggs. 
I tried to ascend the old stub with my climb- 
ers but found that it was so dry and hard that 
I soon decided that it was not safe to risk it. 
So procuring an ax, I soon had a small tree 
down and by the help of a friend, I placed the 
tree against the stub and was soon up to the 
nest, 
The nest was about 20 feet from the ground 
in a hole in the stub about 12 inches deep and 
the old bird was on the nest, and had to be 
lifted off, before I could get the eggs. 
I found five beauties in the nest and they 
were laid on the dry chips at the bottom of the 
hole. Incubation was somewhat advanced 
but I managed to save the eggs without | diffi- 
culty. 
This past season I became somewhat ac- 
quainted with the nesting habits of the Red 
Cockaded Wood-pecker (Dryobata 
The bird has a northern name, but a south 
ern distribution. 
boreali.) 
I found these birds in numbers in Bowie Co. 
but as a general thing their nest is inaccess- 
able, being an excavation tn some dead limb 
up high, 
I found but one nesting site that I had cour- 
age to venture after, although I found many 
nests, and would stand and watch the birds 
from below excavating for their nests. 
I found a pair had selected an old hickory 
stub for a nesting site, and had excavated a 
‘a hole about thirty feet from the ground. 
About the 16th of April I decided that the 
birds had completed their nest, and on strik- 
ing the stub the female would leave the hole; 
but on climbing to the hole and taking my 
hatchet and cutting away so I could reach the 
bottom, I was disappointed to find no eggs. 
The birds then appropriated an old excava- 
tion in another stub about one hundred yards 
away from the first place, and on May 31 I 
decided to try again. It was only about eigh- 
teen feet up this time,so f 
W145 soon up and cut- 
ting away sol could reach the bottom, this 
time [ found five eggs, and on trying to blow 
them, found that they were so far advanced 
in incubation that I could not save them. The 
birds then returned to the first stub and ap- 
propriated a hole about twelve feet below the 
first one that [ had cut out, and on May 20th 
I collected three eggs that were fresh, from 
this last place. 
W. S. CRUZAN. 
CORRESPONDENCE 
To THE EDITOR OF THE NATURALIST: 
Dear Sir—The January number of THE 
NATURALIST contained an article by a writer 
> entitled 
who styled himself ‘‘Amicus Avium,’ 
“‘Habits of the Phoebe.” In that article he 
pays mea high compliment on account of an 
article upon the same subject, which I wrote, 
and which was published in the September, 
1894, number of The Oologist. For this he 
has my hearty thanks. But he also criticises 
me, and by the context of his article, he 
seems to insinuate that I made certain mis- 
statements. To this I wish to reply. 
He says I stated that the phoebe lays from 
five to eight eggs, and after saying that he 
knows sets of four are common, he asks if I 
have ever found a set of eight, and if not, 
upon whose authority I made the statement. 
He says he never heard of a set of that num- 
ber, and evidently assumes such sets do not 
exist. Then heasks if Inever found a set of 
four. Now, if he will turn to the article in 
question, he will find it reads as fo'lows: ‘The 
number of eggs in a nest varies from four to 
eight, but five is the most common number,” 
a 
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