THE OOLOGIST 



W 



33 



ance from her home above. It was 

 fully forty feet to the first limb and 

 then a good thirty-five feet more to 

 the nest, but my reward was there, 

 three large eggs — splotched and dot- 

 ted with reddish brown. The nest 

 was in a triple crotch and made en- 

 tirely of sticks, small branches and 

 leaves, with a lining of green Hem- 

 lock sprays, while the tell tale downy 

 feathers clung to the sticks (just as 

 I had read in the accounts of J. Claire 

 Wood, J. M. Ward, C. F. Stone.) 



On down the valley I went until I 

 came to another large woods on the 

 side of a steep hill. Here I soon saw 

 an immense nest half way up the hill- 

 side and a tap on the tree sent a large 

 Hawk screaming out over the valley. 

 It was an easy climb to the nest — only 

 forty feet up in the triple crotch of a 

 tall straight Sugar Maple and as I 

 neared the nest I could see the fresh 

 scars of a charge of shot which had 

 been fired into it. This was much 

 larger than the first nest, almost as 

 large as nests of the Red-tail I have 

 seen in Greene County, but was built 

 of Hemlock sprays. It held two slight- 

 ly incubated eggs. 



Later in the day we were working 

 up another ridge back toward La 

 Anna when I saw another large nest in 

 a Beech tree well up toward the top of 

 the ridge. A quick tap sent the Hawk 

 screaming off above and hurried me 

 as I strapped on the climbers. It was 

 only forty feet up in the forks of a 

 medium sized Beech (a very small 

 nest) and there in the slight, Hem- 

 lock-lined cavity lay three beautifully 

 marked eggs — all fresh and blotched 

 heavily with sienna and brown. 



Several other nests were found in 

 like situations with the Hawks about 

 them, but the birds had not laid as 

 yet.. On April 15, 1913, I took an- 

 other set of three eggs from this same 



nest but found myself too early for 

 the other pairs, though several were 

 seen building. 



I must confess a partiality toward 

 the Red Shouldered Hawks — I have 

 taken rarer nests, seen more hand- 

 some eggs, but never have I felt a 

 greater throb of ectasy than when 

 peering over the edge of the nest — 

 those heavily splotched eggs were 

 seen, lying in their bed of green. 



Richard C. Harlow. 



The Downey. 



On November 25th-27th, during an 

 exceptionally mild spell, a pair of 

 Downy Woodpeckers chiseled out a 

 typical nesting cavity in a dead cher- 

 ry stub in front of my shop and the 

 birds protested loudly and seemed 

 very much disturbed whenever any 

 one approached. Doubtless their nest 

 building at this time may be attribut- 

 ed to returning sexual activity, due to 

 the milld, spring-like weather, rather 

 than deliberate forethought in prepa- 

 ration of a snug shelter against fu- 

 ture wintry blasts; yet the species 

 was not seen on the place again until 

 the eve of December 6th, in the midst 

 of a severe sleet and snow storm, 

 when one bird, I think occupied the 

 hole for the night or at least until the 

 ice covered branches fell with a crash. 

 F. L. Burns. 



Unusual. 



R. C. Martin, Junior, ? reports a 

 Mockingbird nesting and raising a 

 brood of four young in a Martin box 

 at his home at Albemarle, Louisiana. 

 Likewise of the finding of a set of 

 seven eggs of this songster. 



Two Albinos. 

 While on a hunting expedition in the 

 hills of upper Pas&aic County, N. J., 

 this past season I came upon a partly 

 albino Bobwhite and a perfect albino 

 Ruffed Grouse. 



