The OoLOGiST. 



VOL. XIII. NO. 4 



ALBION, N. Y., APRIL, 1896. 



Whole No. 126. 



A Handful of Winter Notes. 



As usual, at the arrival of the Oolo- 

 GiST, I sat down with the January num- 

 ber to digest the nutriment for which I 

 hunger each month. 



The title of the leading article, "Win- 

 ter Work for the Ornithologist," called 

 my attention. I accordingly began to 

 satisfy ray craving with this morsel. 



From the title I expected to find a 

 list (,f instructions for out of-door work; 

 but as regards to how much 1 was de- 

 ceived, I need not speak. I interpreted 

 this article as a general but neverthe- 

 less a Just censure against the great ar- 

 my of selfish Ornithologists. 



Now in so much as I consider myself 

 to have been a private in this same ar- 

 my I feel justified in calling it by the 

 foregoing name. But I have deter- 

 mined to come out from the ranks of 

 an army designated by so despicable a 

 name. And I hope many others have 

 turned to the same road, with the same 

 feeling of indebtedness to brother Sillo- 

 way. Therefore, following his sugges- 

 tion of "placing your notes, however 

 worthless they may seem to yourself, at 

 the dispo.^al of some good paper," I 

 send these simple notes, taken from a 

 few pleasant rambles during the past 

 two months, to the Editor of The Oolo- 

 GiST. For various reason perhaps it 

 will be best to begin with the most 

 common species. 



The Redpoll: Without doubt this 

 little visitor has been our most common 

 bird. On account of its manner of 

 lljght and its song or twittering it is of- 

 ten mistaken for the Goldfinch. On 

 Nov. 30 I noticed several small flocks of 

 Redpoll; they seemed to be feeding up- 

 on the buds of the birch, also the seeds 



of weeds, etc. On December 10th, ob- 

 served a very large flock of these birds 

 rainglea with the American Goldfinch. 

 Duriog January these birds were seen 

 more around the fields and in the gar- 

 dens than in the birches. The Redpoll 

 is much tamer when it is upon the 

 ground amongst the weeds than it is in 

 a tree, often allowing a person to ap- 

 proach very near and then hopping off. 



The Chickadee: Little need be said 

 about this feathered scolder. In all my 

 tramps I find him the most inquisitive 

 of any of my feathered friends. If you 

 do not approach him he will approach 

 you. Have always noticed them in 

 flocks, never solitary, feeding anywhere 

 from the top of the trees, down the 

 trunk, out on the ends of the limbs and 

 also upon the ground 



The Red-bellied Nuthatch: Near- 

 ly as often as I have walked into any 

 heavy growth of coniferous trees I have 

 heard the familiar "quack" of these 

 busy laborers. Always in flocks; some- 

 times in company with the Chickadee. 

 Feeding anywhere upon a tree, and 

 once I observed them drinking from a 

 little stream of water upon the ground 

 amongst large trees. Although having 

 saen many of this species of the Nut- 

 hatch, I have not observed a single in- 

 dividual of the White-bellied species. 



The Snow Bunting: There has been 

 very little snow up lo Jan. 24th and 

 for this reason these birds have not 

 been seen very often. On Dec. 7, soon 

 after a snow storm I took a stroll out 

 through the fields and woods. As I 

 was passing by a clump of bushes in a 

 low meadow a flock of fifty or more of 

 these birds flew out from the bushes. 

 They appeared to be feeding upon birch 

 buds and various seeds. The next day 



