THE OOLOGIST. 



a spirit of hestitancy was shown on his 

 part. 



For the benefit of those who are not 

 familiar with this bird, I will quote the 

 following from "Minot's Land and 

 Game Birds of New England": 



About eleven inches long. Crown, 

 ashy-blue, usually with a chestnut 

 patch of varying size. Head, otherwise 

 white, with generally seven lai'ge black 

 markings, including one on the nape. 

 Tail, often surrounded by white; and 

 broadly (sub-) tipped with black. 

 Primaries, etc., black with imperfect 

 white bars. Otherwise: — female, brown 

 above, becoming chestnut on the tail, 

 nearly everwhere black-barred. Be- 

 neath, white; breast (often buffy or 

 reddish, and) streaked with black (and 

 brown). Male, smaller, and with few 

 or no black bars or streaks. Wing 

 coverts, ashy-blue (sometimes spotted 

 with black). 



From the above description the ident- 

 ity of the bird in hand must be readily 

 established. 



The flight of the Sparrow Hawk is 

 weak as compared with others: indeed 

 it is never long-continued, but rather 

 at short intervals, and rarely at a great 

 heighth One may at favorable times 

 observe them gracefully skimming over 

 the fields and meadow lands in quest of 

 food, which latter consists of small 

 quadrupeds, birds and — I am told — in- 

 sects. Often they may be seen pounc- 

 ing upon their prey with great celerity, 

 from the lofty branches of a tree, or 

 other suitable positions. 



Except in rare instances, they select 

 for a nesting-place a natural cavity in a 

 tree, or an abandoned excavation of 

 some of the larger species of wood- 

 peckers. Here, sometimes on a lining 

 of coai'se material, often on none except 

 that existing already, four or five eggs 

 are deposited. While the latter can be 

 distinguished at a glance, still the var- 

 iation of even the eggs of a set is often 

 very marked, both in respect to size, 

 and color. 



The extremes of a set of five in nry 

 possession present the following meas- 

 urements: 1.44 x 1.12 of an inch, and 

 1.35 x 1.09 of an inch. The ground- 

 color in these differs from greyish- 

 white in some, to a sort of buff in 

 others. One specimen is marked rather 

 coarsely with dark brown evenly dis- 

 tributed over the surface; another is 

 heavily splashed, and blotched with 

 umber on the smaller end, while the 

 greater portion of the egg is very 

 sparsely spotted with a lighter shade; 

 still another is finely and thickly dotted 

 with cinnamon so as to almost conceal 

 the background of dirty-white. 



Although the Sparrow Hawks may, 

 in certain respects, be of service to 

 mankind, this is more than offset by 

 their terrible destruction of the smaller, 

 and far more useful birds. It is for this 

 latter reason that little protection 

 should be accorded them by the true 

 ornithologist. 



Notwithstanding their faults, how- 

 ever, one cannot but admire their 

 pluck, and almost reckless courage, 

 their fondness of home, and their great 

 attachment for particular localities, 

 although repeatedly disturbed. 



An Observer, 



Conn. 



Annas Humming Bird. 

 (Trochilus anna.) 



One day in the middle of May [ went 

 trout fishing along a little mountain 

 stream, but not having very good suc- 

 cess, I turned my attention to hunting 

 bird nests. 



I had proceeded but a short distance 

 when I heard a buzz close to my head, 

 and upon looking up saw a neat little 

 nest of the Anna's Hummingbird, which 

 contained two eggs. After a hunt of 

 about two hours I felt satisfied to return 

 home without any trout, but with five 

 nice sets of Hummers and several of 

 other species. 



