ORNITHOLOGIST 
[Vol. 11-No. 8 


zine displayed poor taste in its illustrations 
it has done no more than Mr. Brown has 
in his cut of a Peregrine Falcon in flight, 
which appears to us more like the bird 
struggling to scratch its ear. From state- 
ments that we hear by parties who have 
seen many of the English collections, we 
have formed the idea—that they are re- 
markable for vastness rather than beauty— 
and that our American collectors will com- 
pare very favorably with them in work- 
manship. If we are to accept Prof. Ward's 
“confessions” we are entitled to no cred- 
it, and it is only left for us to patiently 
struggle and improve under our import- 
ed, clever foreign tutors. 

Chickadees and Oak-borer. 
BY WALTER HOXIE, FROGMORE, 8. C. 
About the middle of June, I noted a pretty lit- 
tle episode illustrating the close inter-relation of 
ornithology and entomology. I was returning 
from a long and unsuccessfut search for the eggs 
of the White-eyed Towhee. It was near noon as 
I was passing through an open oak wood. It 
had rained heavily all night and most of the 
morning, and now the air was steaming hot and 
still. Every sound came clear and distinct from 
far and near, and among the many familiar notes 
that greeted my ear I was specially attracted by 
the eager voices of a family of Carolina Tits, 
whose voices seemed to. indicate that something 
unusual was going on. My curiosity being 
aroused, I made my way toward them, and when 
at last I came up to the tree they were on I could 
not at first discover what it was that excited 
them so. There were nine of them gathered close 
to the trunk of the tree and all talking at once as 
hard as they could. While I watched them a 
large gray moth with yellow hind wings fluttered 
from among them to another tree, to which they 
promptly and noisily followed. Several times 
this manoeuvre was repeated, and I was at a loss 
to account for their interest in an insect which 
was apparently too large to become their prey. 
The moth was evidently very tired and at last 
found a resting place in the crotch of a big red 
oak. I was so fortunate this time as to gain a 
close position for observation, and speedily ascer- 
tained that it was a female engaged in. depositing 
its eggs, and that the little birds were feeding on 
them as fast as laid. I identificd the specimen as 

Xylentes vobinie on my return home. I notice 
also that it was quite a late hour in the day for 
this species to be laying. Possibly the rain had 
interrupted the operation. 

PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 
CHAPTER XIII.—MOUNTING DEER HEADS. 
. 

{In publishing these articles on Taxidermy all rights are 
reserved for future publication in book form.] 
In mounting deer heads, it is my practice, if I 
have the skinning of the specimen, to commence 
at the neck and skin to the base of horns or skull, 
without slitting the skin, disjoint the neck and 
then skin from the mouth back, thus leaving the 
skin attached to the horns as nature formed it. 
Removing the brain, I use a carpenter’s gouge for 
cutting out the nares, and in place of nostrils fit a 
wooden plug shaped to proper form. If the 
lower jaw is very heavy or deep, as is sometimes 
the case, and the mouth short, it will be necessary 
to remove the lower jaw in order to complete the 
skinning process. When ready to set up, the 
mouth is sewed from the outside; the stuffing of 
the nose, jaws, ete., is through the nostrils with a 
heavy wire slightly flattened and grooved for the 
purpose. I like the method of skinning because it 
makes perfect work about the base of horns.— 
W. L. Walsh. 

Ratio of Major and Minor Axis of 
Eggs. 
BY WALTER HOXIE, FROGMORE, 8. C. 

My observations lead me to consider the ratio 
of the major and minor axis of eggs to be de- 
pendent on the length of time the egg is retained 
in the oviduct. Eggs laid daily are normal in 
shape, while those laid every other day are longer. 
When two days intervene the egg is abnormally 
long and pointed. Twenty-eight nests of the 
Boat-tailed Grackle have been closely watched be- 
fore reaching this conclusion. A number of dis- 
sections of the same species of bird tend to sub- 
stantiate the same theory. Here may be an 
explanation of the manner in which old and ex- 
perienced “hen wives” can determine the sex of 
an egg. If it is conceded that the male is higher 
in development than the female or that he takes a 
proper time to develop, then these long eggs are 
those which will hatch out as males. This is of 
course a mere hint at a theory and I hope I may 
hear some fresh facts, either pro or con from cor- 
respondents or through the columns of the O. 
and O, 
