CORRESPONDENCE 237 



much to go to the logging woods to spend a week or so, but am 

 afraid to sleep in the camps, as I might take cold. Prof. Baird is 

 a great fellow for sets of eggs. These big society folks will take 

 all they can get, the most of them by sets or any other way and 

 if we want any sets of them they come very slow. However, 

 I suppose we private folks are not of so much consequence as big 

 European and other societies. I get letters every few weeks from 

 Prof. Baird. He has a big lot of things from the Arctic regions, 

 he says over 100,000 specimens. I am getting some winter birds' 

 skins for them, also a lot of steruums (breast bones of birds) and 

 hope we shall get a good lot of things from him when he has 

 time to wait upon us. I got a good box, however, last spring and 

 expect, if I get time, to go again, say the last of March and see 

 what he has that is new. 



I notice what you say about the Wood Pewee. They are very 

 hard to find with us. They build in the deep woods. I never got 

 but one or two. Do you keep nests as well as birds iji any quan- 

 tities? 1 think they are very interesting and some of them are 

 very pretty, the Wood Pewee and Thistle-bird and many of the 

 warblers. I had a nest and eggs sent me called the Golden- 

 crowned Wren, with a very pretty nest, nearly one inch thick, 

 made of pi-etty green moss. I used to throw away the nests, not 

 having a good place in which to keep them and besides, they 

 made a great deal of dirt ; moths would eat the feathers and lining, 

 but my glass top boxes keep them very close. I have only saved 

 a very few and am very sorry I have no more. I must collect 

 nests next year. I am sorry your Miss Pewee got killed. I did 

 not know they would build again in the same place when they 

 were disturbed. Many birds, by taking all their eggs but one, 

 will continue to lay a large number. The little Eed Owl and 

 Sparrow Hawk will do so, as well as many of the Woodpeckers. 



I did not go after the big Heron's eggs, I was very busy, and 

 they build on so high trees I did not feel like undertaking the job. 

 I had quite a task getting a Duck Hawk's eggs. I went about 

 sixty miles, half the way in boats. There were two nests and I 

 must try to get one more this spring. Were it not for the fun of 

 such an excursion they would cost more than they come to. I was 

 gone over a week with quite an expensive crew. They breed very 



