24 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 10-No. 2 



THE 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



— AN'D — 



OOLOGIST. 



A MOyrilLY MAGAXIXE OF 



NATURAL HISTORY, 



ESI'KCIALLY DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OP 



BIRDS, 



THEIR ySSTS AXD EGGS. 



DE^IfiNED AS A MEANS FOR THE INTERCHANGE OF N0TE3 

 AND OBSERVATIONS ON BIRD LIFE. 



FRANK B. WEBSTER, Publisher, 

 PAWTUCKET, R. I. 



Editor's Notes. 



It has not beeu possible for us to tbank 

 iiKlividnally more thau a few of tbe many 

 subscribers who have esi^ressed theu- satis- 

 faction with our enlarged Magazine. We 

 therefore take this opportunity of assiu'ing 

 those who have so written us, that their 

 appreciation is a material assistance in 

 carrying on our work. 



In reference to "A New Species of Field 

 Sparrow" described by Mr. Marsh in oiu" 

 last number. (O. and O. X, p 5), Mr. Kidg- 

 way writes us. "The name should read 

 8])izella wort/ieni—a name which was be- 

 stowed by me in honor of Mr. Chas. K. 

 Worthen, of Warsaw, 111., who generously 

 j^resented the type and only known siDeci- 

 men to the National Museum. I first recog- 

 nized its distinctness from S. pusilla, and 

 after informing iMr. Worthen of the fact, 

 obtained his consent to give his name to 

 the species. I was not posted as to the 

 name of the collector, otherwise I should 

 have been very glad to give Mr. Marsh due 

 credit for its discovery." Mr. Worthen 

 also writes us, giving the same information. 



It always gives us much jileasure to call 

 attention to a iiseful book, and a iiseful 

 book certainly is the ''Egg Check List of 

 North American Bu-ds." just pulilished by 



Mr. Oliver Davie, of Columbus, Ohio. It 

 contains condensed deserii3tions of up- 

 wards of four hundred species of North 

 Ameiican Birds' Eggs, arranged in the 

 order and by the numbers of the Smith- 

 sonian Check List. With the aid of this 

 book the collector wOl be able in most cases 

 to identify his sjjecimens. The informa- 

 tion is given conciselj-, in well chosen 

 terms and in a form which renders refer- 

 ence easy. Few collectors can have suffi- 

 cient knowledge of Birds' Eggs to be able 

 to do without Jlr. Davie's Check list. 



An 1884 Hawk List. 



IIV ,T. M. W. NOUWRII, (ONX. 



In my observatious in the O. ami O. on the 

 Buteps for 1882, it was noted that a line drawn 

 just outside and around this city would pass 

 through the breeding-places of sixteen pairs of 

 Red-shouldered Hawks. Now, an avian atlas of 

 this part of New London county would alsosliow 

 that an outer circle, girdling Norwich about six 

 miles away, would cut tlirough tlie ancestral 

 homes of ten pairs of Hed Tails, all breed- 

 ing on dry wooded uplands or hillsides. And* 

 1 do not find any neighborhood record of a 

 Red-tailed Hawk breeding on a low damp 

 site or in the thick swamps so much af- 

 fected by its two local congeners. To the 

 nesting Cooper, lowlands or uplands are all tlie 

 same. 



Taken from these oullying and concentric su- 

 burbs, on llic evening of May 13th, I had twenty- 

 five unblown hawk's eggs on hand, the product 

 of two day's field work and involving half a day's 

 further labor to prepare in good shape for tlie cabi- 

 net. These were taken at about the height of the 

 season when Cooper's were laying freely, the liar- 

 ried Buteos trying to liide their second clutches, 

 and Marsh and Sharp-shinned Hawks just com- 

 ing in. Supplemented by the season's complete 

 take given below, they represent many hours 

 close observation, confirm previous records and 

 views, and give a mass of useful and corrolibor- 

 ative data. Any especially fresli details about the 

 nidification, or novel about the eggs of these 

 Raptores, will be given in another paper. Suffice 

 to say here that Owls, Buteos, Harriers and Ac- 

 cipitcrs, bred for the most part in nests used 

 before, in familiar localities, and very generally 

 in Chestnut trees. It will be seen that in no in- 

 stance did the cbitcli of hurcnHx exceed two and 



