38 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 8-No. 5 



resemblance to a ring, but the si^ots some- 

 what larger and a little more numerous at 

 the large end, the ground color being a 

 fresh rosy white, before being blown, and 

 the markings light brown, nearly cinna- 

 mon. In No. 2 the sj)ots are more numer- 

 ous, forming a distinguishable ring near 

 the large end. but the sj^ots are very small 

 and even lighter in color than those of No 

 1. So far as my observation extends the 

 eggs are usually less elongated than those 

 of most of the Warblers and more sj)arsely 

 marked. 



It is stated that Dr. Brewer published 

 in the Proceedings of the Boston Natural 

 History Society for May, 1879, an account 

 of the finding of a nest of this species at 

 New Haven, Conn., by N. A. Eddy, adding 

 that he believed it to be the only instance 

 of its being taken in New England ; but 

 two of the nests alluded to above were 

 taken long before that. The bird is in fact 

 quite common here in the migrations, and 

 the collector will hear their quaint song, 

 if such it can be -called, in every warm glade 

 of any extent in our woods by the middle 

 of May, about which time they first appear. 

 May 5th, 1880, and May 12th, 1881, and 

 perched on the summit of some small tree 

 keep up their insect hke note, repeating it. 

 at intervals of two or three minutes, by the 

 hour. A friend listening to it for a while 

 very successfully imitated it by violently 

 drawing in his breath through his closed 

 teeth, and slowly breathing it out again in 

 the same manner with a slight vocal sound 

 at the same time. The birds become much 

 rarer as the breeding season arrives, or else 

 more quiet, the former I think, for I find 

 them usually quite demonstrative when 

 their nesting place is invaded, and that 

 their note is changed to a more vocal one. 

 But if the birds go further it is a mystery 

 to me whither, for my ornithological friends 

 only a few miles further north declare that 

 they never find it. Mr. Sage once wrote 

 me from Portland, triumphantly, "At last 

 we have got it:" but when I saw their 



specimen I found it the still rarer H. leu- 

 Gohronchlalis. Since my first acquaintance 

 with the bird, more than a dozen years ago, 

 I have never failed to find them in consid- 

 erable numbers every Spring. I have been 

 sometimes amused at a remark in " Samu- 

 els' Birds of New England," which I have 

 also seen copied by other authors, that he 

 " once saw a small flock at Dedham, Mass., 

 &c." Of all the solitary birds I never saw 

 any more exclusively so than this species, 

 and among the numbers I have seen I never 

 saw a flock consist of more than a pair, male 

 and female, and I have often hoped no au- 

 thor would credit the bird to Massachu- 

 setts again without some better authority 

 than that. — J. JV. Clark, Say brook, Conn. 



Is it Honest ? 



If we see a book ofi'ered for sale and we 

 j)urchase a copy, and two or three years 

 later another work is offered by the same 

 author and we again purchase a copy and 

 find in the second work twenty-five per 

 cent of the matter and cuts that were in the 

 previous work, "Is it Honest T is it not a 

 fraudulent transaction to the extent of the 



reproduced matter? 



^ 



Good Shot. — R. N. Denison secured at 

 one shot, near the mouth of the Connecti- 

 cut River, the middle of February, three 

 Lapland Long-spurs, two Shore Larks 

 and one Tree Sparrow. 



Wanted to Know. If the following 

 named birds could be kept as cage birds, 

 viz. : Canada Jays, Cardinal Redbirds, 

 Golden Robins and Scarlet Tanagers. — A 

 Subscriber. 



Jasper's Birds of North America. — In 

 glancing over the above work we notice 

 that the pair of Woodcocks have five young, 

 that the Summer Redbird's beak is as red 

 as the body, and that "Audubon's Birds of 

 North America" are quoted, and that Dr. 

 Coues is quoted very often. Can this ac- 

 count for the Doctor's endorsement of this 

 work ? 



