THE OOLOGIST. 



It is late in July, 1877, and I am 

 among the New Hampshire hills, about 

 25 miles north of Mt. Washington; there 

 are still some nests to be found, for 

 along the river banks the Cedarbirds 

 are nesting in little colonies amorg the 

 alders and the Goldfinches are at home 

 in the small growth of the pastures and 

 roadsides. A certain hill-side pasture 

 is of interest, for two or three pairs of 

 Winter Wrens live there, aud to find 

 their abode is my ambition, but in vain; 

 for when by their excited movements in 

 some pile of stumps and logs I am led to 

 believe that their nest is "just around 

 the corner" and commence to explore, 

 they flit to the next pile and go through 

 the same performance, and at last we 

 leave in despair. A few days after, I 

 received word from my friend that he 

 had found the wished-for nest with five 

 eggs, which were left for me to take 

 myself. The next day we went to the 

 place, but before we Jgot there the 

 Wrens met us, protesting most forcibly 

 against our intrusion. 



It is related that a young lady from 

 Vassar, after witnessing the efforts of a 

 steam fire engine to .drown out a fire, 

 turned to her escort and remarked, 

 "who would have thought that so dim- 

 inutive an apparatus could have contain- 

 ed so much water?" And any one who 

 has met an excited Wren must have 

 wondered that so diminutive a bird 

 could contain so much indignation. 



However, we ventured to the nest 

 and peeped in, and to our disgust saw a 

 most promising family of five young 

 Wrens. But it was something to be 

 able to say we had seen a Winter Wren's 

 nest. The location was on the edge of 

 a meadow, where it began to relapse in- 

 to its original state of spruce swamp, 

 and the nest was built in a hole in an 

 old stump, entered from the top, and 

 so entirely open to the sky. No at- 

 tempt was made to cover the nest, as 

 the opening was just large enongh for 

 the birds to pass in. 



One evening my uncle asked, "do 

 you know any bird that nests in the 

 winter?" and then explained by saying 

 that early in the preceding March a 

 party of wood-choppers from the vil- 

 lage were at woi^k in a birch forest on 

 a range of hills just west of the Con- 

 necticut river, when to their surprise 

 they found in one of the trees a nest 

 containing eggs, and on examination 

 they found several others in the vicini- 

 ty. They brought the eggs to the village 

 and exhibited them, but no one took suffi- 

 cient interest iu them to preserve them, 

 At last I found a boy who had blown one 

 and kept it, so I made a bargain with 

 him and he went home for it, only to 

 return with the pleasing information 

 that his mother had broken it and 

 thrown it away, and so I lost the Cross- 

 bill's egg. He described it as colored 

 something like a "Teeter's," (Spotted 

 Sandpiper's) egg. I have never seen it 

 mentioned before that this bird waa 

 social iu its breeding habits. 



The scene now changes to a Minneso- 

 ta swamp, some 12 miles west of Min- 

 neapolis, where in making a survey a 

 Hawk's nest was found in a maple tree, 

 about twenty feet from the ground. 

 The bird startled from the nest flew but 

 fifty or sixty feet, and lighting on a 

 dead limb, faced us with quiet curiosity, 

 displaying the beautifully and uniquely 

 marked breast of the Goshawk; but the 

 tree was large and slippery and all our 

 efforts to reach the nest failed, and that 

 set of eggs never reached my cabinet. 

 The next spring I visited the tree with 

 climbers, hoping the bird to have re- 

 turned, but was disappointed. 



But I will not pursue this subject of 

 "It might have been," much further, 

 but to show that such ill luck still pur- 

 sues me, will say that a friend in "the 

 pineries" shot for me about a month 

 ago, a large specimen of the Great Gray 

 Owl, but when he came out his pack 

 was so large that he had to leave it for 

 the wolves. This specimen was shot in 



