THE OOLOGIST. 



47- 



tion. I will start in earnest and in the 

 fall [ will spring a real surprise on the 

 boys. J. B. H. 



[We print John's interesting and 

 startling letter in full, and trust that 

 the moral which may be readily deduced 

 by its perusal, will set many of the 

 Oologist's younger readers to serious- 

 ly thinking, and should they decide or 

 question as to whether there is not a 

 striking similarity between John's and 

 their own experience, we would sug- 

 gest that they drop egg collecting and 

 take up stamps or coins, unless like 

 John, they decide to begin anew and 

 strive to be a true oologist as defined 

 in December Oologist. — Eds.] 



Watching Flickers. 



The winter of '93 here in Minnesota 

 was exceptionally cold, and when about 

 the 1st of April the sun came out from 

 the clouds and the large drifts began to 

 melt away everyone was glad to see 

 spi'ing once more. 



Every day after this the snow seemed 

 to gradually disappear and the days 

 grew gradually warmer. Flocks of 

 birds were seen migrating and once in 

 a while a single crow. More birds 

 were seen every day and most of them 

 busy searching for food. 



But what a change when one morn- 

 ing I woke up to realize that it was five 

 degrees below zero and six inches of 

 snow on the ground. Hardly a bird 

 was to be seen and those that were 

 seen at all were flying back and forth 

 in search of refuge. 



Upon dressing and going out to the 

 barn I found quite an assemblage of 

 birds, who in a very uncomplimentary 

 manner, took to flight at my approach. 

 During the day the weather grew warm- 

 er and at noon the thermometer was just 

 zero. The next morning the thermom- 

 eter stood about one below zero and by 

 noon it was quite warm. The snow 

 melted almost all day and the next 

 morn ng bare places could be seen and 

 especially around trees, revealing the 

 grass and a few acorns. 



That night upon coming into my 

 room 1 heard a fluttering of wings, and 

 on lighting a lamp I found a Flicker 

 flying around the room and recklessly 

 dashing with its long beak into any- 

 thing that came in its way. 



I suppose it had flown into the room 

 to escape the cold, the window being 

 open. I went down stairs and found a 

 small starch box and after quite a chase 

 succeeded in capturing him. I cut a . 

 small hole in the top of the box for 

 air, and then retired. 



The next morning I thought 1 would 

 have some fun with my captive, so I 

 took the box out in a grove back of the- 

 house, set it down on the snow and' 

 then went back into the barn to watch 

 for further developments. 



At first all I could hear was the 

 Flicker drumming at intervals, but 

 soon I heard drummings from other 

 places, and on looking closely, discov- 

 ered eight other Flickers on different 

 trees aud all of them quite near the 

 box. First the one in the box would 

 drum away and then another until 

 each had had its turn, and then they 

 would start over again. 



In a little while all drumming stop- 

 ped and 1 noticed that they were grad- 

 ually getting nearer to the box. Final- 

 ly one of them flew upon the box, and 

 at once the bird inside began to drum. 

 When he stopped the one on top 

 seemed to answer, aud then both be- 

 gan to peck around the air hole. Then 

 another aud another Flicker came to 

 help until there were four birds on the 

 box, pecking at the hole and endeavor- 

 ing to free their friend inside. 



Thinking that I might catch some 

 more of these birds, I fixed a box-trap 

 near the caged bird so that I could op- 

 erate it from the barn by a long string. 

 Then I threw a handful of wheat under 

 the trap as bait. I noticed for the first 

 time a swarm of birds on the barn. I 

 think there must have been fifty at 

 least and most of them Sparrows and;. 



