April 1887.] 



A^D OOLOGIST. 



57 



pounding upon the stub produced any further 

 eftect, except to mak*^ her roll her ej'es. My 

 companion therefore fastened on the irons and 

 began to clinil) the stub, which shook and 

 swayed with his weight, l)ut still tlie bird did 

 not move until ids face was almost on a level 

 withher's; when several threatening motions 

 of his liand at last induced iier to tly out and 

 alight on the nearest perch, the iiorizontal limb 

 of a small hemlock, about a rod from the nest. 

 There she sat, perfectly immovable during the 

 thi-ee-quarters of an hour that we spent in ex- 

 amining the nest, and immediately after my 

 companion descended to the ground, she flew 

 back into the hole. 



I nmst not forget to mention one curious fact. 

 AVhen the bird's face first appeared at the hole, 

 I exclaimed : " Why ! it is a young bird."" The 

 dai'k face and the white eyebrows were very 

 marked, but immediately upon her alighting 

 upon the branch, in the full light, this entirely 

 disappeared, and her face was the ordinary face 

 of an old bird. Exactly the same eftect was 

 noticed with one of the others mentioned fur- 

 ther on. 



We found the hole to be a foot deep and eight 

 inches in diameter at the bottom. There was no 

 nest excejit the rotten chips left by the wood- 

 jieckers and a few of the owl's feathers — prob- 

 ably accidental. There were seven eggs, pure, 

 dead white, without gloss or polish. They 

 were nearly the same size at each end, and 

 about "oval"' in shape, according to Plate xvi., 

 figure 11 of Eidgway"s Nomenclature of Coloi's 

 and Ornithologist's Compendium. They meas- 

 ure as follows : 1.18 X. 95; 1.13 x. 96; 1.19x.96; 

 1.18X.97; 1.16X.98; 1.14x.99 and 1.17x1.00. 

 They were variously advanced in incubation, 

 though none of them were very much incu- 

 bated, showing that the bird had been sitting 

 since she began to lay. The consistency of the 

 albumen was particularly viscid, and the yolk 

 small and light colored. 



The other nests were so exactly similar to 

 this one that a short descripion of them is all 

 that is necessary. 



The second nest was also found near Holland 

 Patent, on April 21st, 1886, in a woodpecker's 

 hole, in a dead stub, forty feet from the ground, 

 and contained five young bii'ds and one egg, 

 which was just on the point of hatching. 



The third nest was taken the same day, near 

 the Trenton Falls of the West Canada Creek, in 

 a woodpecker's hole in a stub, twenty feet from 

 the ground. The hole was nine inches deep and 

 nine inches in diameter at the bottom ; and was 

 lined either purposely or accidentally with a 



few featliers, dry birch leaves, and chips left 

 by the original architects. It contained seven 

 eggs, exactly similar to the first set, and meas- 

 uring as follows : 1.18X.97; 1.18X.98; 1.24x 

 .98; 1.24X.98; 1.25x.98; 1.21 x .99 and 1.23 x 

 1.00. 



The fourth nest was found April 30th, 1886, 

 about one mile north of Gang Mills, Herkimer 

 County, in a deserted woodpecl<er"s hole, in a 

 stub, fifty feet from the ground, in a heavy 

 swamp ; and contained seven eggs within a day 

 of hatching. 



From this very successful Spring's work, it 

 seems that we are eitlier particularlj' fortunate 

 in our location for studying the nesting of this 

 bird, or what is more likely, that the nests have 

 not been more often found simply because they 

 have not been sj^stematically and diligently 

 sought for. 



With the data furnished in this article I have 

 no doubt some of the readers of The Orni- 

 thologist AND OoLOGiST, if willing to do the 

 hard and disagreeable work of searching the 

 swamps in March and April, will be able to add 

 to the I'ecords of the Saw Whet. 



The "Shore-bird Migration at Mon- 



omoy Island, Cape Cod, Mass., 



Spring of i886. 



HY JOHN C. CAIIOON. 



By permission of the Bristol County Ornithological 

 CUib. 



I arrived on the island May 29th, and found 

 Piping Plover, Arctic, Eoseate, Wilson's and 

 Least Tern very common. Among the other 

 birds noted were Spotted Sandpiper, Semi-pal- 

 mated Plover, Semi-palmated Sandpipers, Savan- 

 nah Sparrows and Sanderlings. Several large 

 flocks of "Coot"' were seen flying over the is- 

 land; Ped-wing Blackbirds and Meadow Larks 

 were common. 



3Iay 31, wind north-east; rain fell in the af- 

 ternoon. One Eed-breasted Snipe and twenty 

 Black-bellied Plovers seen ; Riehardson"s Jae- 

 gars quite connnon. June 1st, wind north-east, 

 clear; Sanderlings common. On going down 

 to the sand bars, I noticed several Bona])arte 

 Gulls, while the Herring Gulls were abundant. 

 June 2nd, wind south, cloudy ; Black-bellied 

 Plover common. A Brant was shot by a gun- 

 ner to-day. The bird was not a cripple, and 

 was a late occurrence for this species. Six 

 Laughing Gulls were seen flying very high. 

 June 3rd, rainy; wind south, blowing very 



