THE OOLOGIST 



81 



With the Albatross, same as with 

 the Eagle, there is a certain amount 

 of elasticity in the tape line which 

 some are using in measuring the ex- 

 panse of their wings. Some folks, who 

 possibly have not been personal ob- 

 servers, claim that some Albatrosses 

 measure as high as fourteen feet be- 

 tween the tips of the wings. I have 

 never seen an Albatross that would 

 even measure fully ten feet between 

 the wingtips and I have seen some of 

 the largest birds caught, and have per- 

 sonally measured dozens of them, be- 

 sides having spent years of my life in 



the Albatross-latitudes of the South- 

 ern Seas. 



Ernest S. Norman. 



The Editor's Condition. 

 The Editor of THE OOLOGIST 

 leaves California for his home this 

 evening (May 3d) and will arrive here 

 on Thursday. He will be glad to be 

 home again after so long an absence, 

 and the readers of THE OOLOGIST 

 are no doubt pleased to hear that he 

 has recovered from his serious acci- 

 dent sufficient to travel. 



An Unusual Nesting Colony. 



During the Spring of 1914 at Bloom- 

 field, New Jersey, occurred what is 

 probably the most interesting and un- 

 usual association of birdlife that has 

 ever come to my attention. 



In a small swamp at the southern 

 end of the town where the chestnuts 

 have all been killed within the past 

 four or five years, for several sea- 

 sons past the Flicker and Downy 

 Woodpecker have been excavating 

 nesting cavities in the dead branches 

 and trunks of these trees, and in one 

 dead trunk there are four of these 

 cavities, a large one near the top and 

 three smaller ones below, and all with- 

 in a space of six feet from the lowest 

 to the uppermost. 



On May 10th a pair of Sparrow 

 Hawks established themselves in the 

 large cavity at the top and began ar- 

 ranging a home and succeeded in rear- 

 ing a very noisy and boisterous fam- 

 ily of three young hawks. 



In the cavity about two feet below 

 them a family of House Wrens were 

 reared to maturity, and in the two low- 

 er cavities two families of Starlings 

 were reared. 



The very unusual part of this queer 

 association was the fact that although 

 the hawks above preyed continually on 

 the nests of three pairs of Song Spar- 

 rows, a pair of Bluebird and a pair of 

 Field Sparrows in the near vicinity, 

 not leaving a single young bird of 

 these broods to live, still the young 

 of the wrens and starlings were left 

 undisturbed and careful watching fail- 

 ed to detect any indications of depre- 

 dations of the hawks on their fellow 

 tenants of this stump. 



L. S. Kohler. 



The Interesting Magpie. 

 The year 1913 I was located in 

 Northern Colorado. To an eastern 

 bird lover the country afforded many 

 interesting studies, the most fascinat- 

 ing of which was the American Mag- 

 pie. This was probably due to the 

 bird's striking appearance, noisy mis- 

 chevious nature and the many oppor- 

 tunities to study them. In habits he 

 is both a rascal and a clown, inquisi- 

 tive, yet wary and suspicious, hand- 

 some, but ill-bred. They destroy other 

 birds' eggs and torment cattle by pick- 

 ing any raw sore they may have on 

 them. When talking to ranchmen they 

 had often informed me of this disgust- 

 ing practice of the bird. One fine 

 morning however, I had the interest- 

 ing experience of seeing two adult 

 Magpies which were determined to 

 have fresh beef for breakfast. The 

 victim was a large steer who, with tail 



