54 



THE OOLOGiST. 



sportsmen, and Chai'lesMaltbie, a poul- 

 try raiser on the outskirts of . Geneva, 

 poisoned a male and female. Some of 

 his chickens were in the habit of roost- 

 ing on the fence surrounding the park 

 in preference to the coop and one morn- 

 ing when Mr. M. went to feed them he 

 found one of his best Minorca hens 

 half eaten up, and supposed it to be the 

 work of a skunk or some other animal. 

 Thinking the destroyer might return 

 the next night to finish the chicken, he 

 left it in the same position and sprinkl.- 

 ed it with strychnine. He was rewarded 

 next morning by finding not a skunk 

 but a Great Horned Owl which proved 

 to be a male, and still alive; it ate too 

 much of the drugged meat to get away. 

 The following morning a female Owl 

 was found in the same condition ;neither 

 were dead and would snap viciously 

 when poked with a stick. On giving 

 them a little water the strychnine 

 quickly did its work. Mr. M. has had 

 a great deal of trouble with these birds. 

 The following story rivals the Eagle 

 who carried off the babe: It was in the 

 year of '85 that I had a small terrier 

 that came very near being carried off 

 by one of these birds. It was just 

 growing dark and I was returning from 

 my work and just entered the lane lead- 

 ing to the barn when I heard the dog 

 begin to howl in a most piteous man- 

 ner in the direction of the front yard 

 but did not think much of it, supposed 

 some one had hit him; but when he had 

 howled for a minute or so I began to 

 think something was wrong, and on 

 runaing around the house, what should 

 I see but one of these pesky birds try- 

 ing to carry off the dog. The dog soon 

 proved to -big a load for the Owl and he 

 slowly descended to the ground, drop- 

 ped the dog and started to fly off, but 

 Jim, who had been waiting an oppor- 

 tunity during the struggle was to quick 

 for him and 'peppered' hj m with a big 

 charge of buckshot. I had him stuffed 

 and you can see him by coming into 



the house, which we made haste to do. 

 He was the finest specimen of the Great 

 Horned Owl I ever saw. 



So far 1 have been unable to find any 

 of their nests but hope to secure a set 

 of eggs the coming season. 



White-throated Sparrow in St. Lawrence Co., 

 N. Y. 



July 19, 1893. As I was entering a 

 narrow piece of evergreen, chiefly 

 cedar, woods, situated in a rather low 

 place, I flushed a White-throated Spar- 

 row, [Zonolrichia albicollis) from her 

 nest of four eggs. It was placed on the 

 ground near a fallen tree, and was 

 pretty well concealed by the grass and 

 a bunch of ferns which overhung it. 



The nest was a tine, compact struct- 

 ure, composed of grasses, weeds, stalks, 

 etc., and lined with fine grass and horse 

 hair. 



The eggs resembled those of the Song 

 Sparrow in size and markings, but 

 were rather lighter and less heavily 

 marked than the general run of Song 

 Sparrows. On blowing one of them 1 

 found incubation to be considerably 

 advanced. This egg measured .81x61. 



Two days later I visited the nest and 

 found the female" on it. I approached 

 within three or four feet of her,^so close 

 that I could plainly see the yellow ex- 

 tending from' base of bill to eye, before 

 she left the nest. 



This is the only instance of this Spar- 

 row's breeding here that has come un- 

 der my notice. Davie says they breed 

 in Northern New York, "nesting in 

 June." This, then, was probably a 

 second set. 



C. Houghton. 

 Potsdam, N. Y. 



Bohemian Waxwings. 



On the 14th of Jan., '91 on coming 

 out of a neighbor's house I noticed a 

 large flock of birds on a tree across the 



