CORRESPONDENCE 219 



do better this season. My collectors have done well this spring 

 and I expect to get a good many duplicates for exchanges. One 

 of my hunters who lives some twenty miles from me sent me 

 word when I was sick that he had found two nests of the Red- 

 tailed Hawk, but could find no one who dared climb the trees. If 

 I had been able I should have gone out with one of my climbers 

 who says "he can climb any tree made of wood," and I believe he 

 can. lie makes no more effort apparently than a squirrel. I have 

 seen him go up sixty or eighty feet and swing off with nothing 

 but his feet to hold him — head down and then swing back. 



" The Wood Pewee," writes Dr. Wood on March 11, 

 ISliT, " does not nest in the same spot when broken tip, 

 but very near it. There is a grove of one and one-half 

 acres back of our garden and the pair would not leave 

 that grove no matter how many times I took their eggs." 

 May 7, 1868, Mr. Boardman writes him: "I told my 

 friend Mr. Krider of Philadelphia, who is a great col- 

 lector and a very nice man, to get acquainted with you. 

 He has a good collection and time to pay attention to 

 the egg business, and does not have two hundred work- 

 men to keep employed. In about ten days, or after the 

 lakes are open, I expect to go up country fishing and 

 look after some tree ducks. The little Buffle Head Duck 

 is with us all the season and breeds in holes in trees, 

 but I have never been able to get the eggs. Baird has 

 them but I prefer to get them here if possible." 



On May 18, 1868, Dr. Wood writes : "I have obtained 

 one very singular set of eggs that I am unable to decipher 

 — one of my collectors told me that he had found some 

 very singular crows' eggs. He saw the crow building 

 the nest in the top of a tall pine and after a week or so 

 he obtained four eggs. They are the shape and size of 

 rather small crows' eggs, but are marked like the eggs 



