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ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 8-No. 6 



Cardinal Grosbeak. 



My attention was called by Mr. Small's 

 article in the February number of O. and 

 O. to the difference between his experience 

 and mine in regard to time of nesting of 

 the Cardinal Grosbeak. He says "■ they 

 are among our latest breeders, first sets 

 being found about the 1st of June," while 

 I regard this as one of the first species to 

 be looked after, excepting the Rapacia. 



I found three incomplete sets on Aj)ril 

 21st, 1878, and a set of four eggs partly 

 incubated, on April 28th of the same year, 

 and have since had similar experience. I 

 formerly thought, like Mr. Small, that the 

 Redbird was a late breeder and was much 

 surprised when I found my first April set. 

 June sets I now regard as second sets of 

 the season. I have found the nest in quite 

 a variety of situations, sometimes in cur- 

 rant bushes or other shrubbery of the gar 

 den or lawn, but most frequently in the 

 crotch of a thorn -bush or small tree in 

 thickety woods. I knew of one built last 

 season in a grai^evine which was trained 

 against the side of a house, almost in the 

 very centre of the town and surrounded 

 on three sides by brick walls. They were 

 not allowed to hold peaceable possession 

 here, however, for the place was a vei^ita- 

 ble den of House Sparrows, and either 

 they or the cats broke up the Redbird's 

 nest. — W. T. Warrick, Washington, Fa. 



Humane. 



"Man's inhumanity to man made count- 

 less millions mourn," but what of man's 

 inhumanity to dumb animals that cannot 

 even protest. Let each one examine his 

 own record and see if some improvement 

 in this respect cannot be made. We like 

 to read the works of the eccentric Web- 

 ber ; he had a kind heart. When his wife, 

 to whom he was devotedly attached, asked 

 him to shoot her a Mockingbird before 

 she could complete the drawing of that 

 bird, he hesitated. When she told him he 



must get her one he replied, " I would 

 rather meet a Panther on the bound, but 

 if it must be done, I will do it." But his 

 heart failed him and he could not pull the 

 trigger. A collector can hardly stop to 

 study the humane side of the question, 

 and yet some do, and we get some letters 

 which show this noble trait in man fully 

 developed. We make the following ex- 

 tract from a letter of this kind : 



" While I have devoted a great deal of time to finding 

 birds' nests and studying the habits of birds, I somehow 

 have so strong an aversion to taking the eggs of small 

 birds that, although the partaker is as bad as the thief, I 

 prefer to buy sets of most kinds to taking them. After I 

 have watched a bird and she has taken me into her confi- 

 dence, as it were, I cannot help thinking I have been doing 

 a rather mean thing to rob her ; and though I have done it, 

 and would in no case censure others, still there is not half 

 the pleasure in robbing them there is in finding the nests 

 and leaving the old birds in possession. I have got a War- 

 bler so used to me as to take her into my hand from the 

 nest, and she almost immediately returns to it when liber- 

 ated. 



"I have the same repugnance to shooting small birds and 

 have bought most of my Warblers, etc., and mounted from 

 skins. I still lack a common Chipping Sparrow in my col- 

 lection, though for two years past a pair have built within 

 three feet of the knob of my bird house door and my elbow 

 almost touches her as I open the door, while I work on 

 birds in Summer weather with the door open, the female 

 often sits on a lattice and peeps in inquisitively to see what 

 all t^iose large birds are in there for." 



While fully endorsing these sentiments 

 we recognize the right of all to collect at 

 will eggs or birds, and science demands 

 that collections shall be made ; but we 

 earnestly ask all collectors to be humane 

 about it. Do not take a bird or an ^^^ 

 unless good use is to be made of it; do 

 not kill wantonly ; no not take a nest unless 

 there is a full set, and you need it for self 

 or friend ; never shoot a bird for wanton 

 sport. 



Crows Eating Herons' Eggs. 



About ten pairs of Night Herons {Nycti- 

 ardea gi'isea,) and three pair of Little 

 Blue Herons, {Ardea C06r«/ga,) have nested 

 for a few years within the corporate limits 

 of the city of New Brunswick, N. J. 

 When I visited this heronry, late in April, 

 '82, I discovered that one nest already 

 contained four eggs, two others each three, 

 several more one and two. Avhile the re- 



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