THE OOLOGIST. 



183 



soon proved to be a very fine male 

 with an exquisite plumage. Several 

 times during its captivity it escaped 

 to the open air, 'but never went too 

 far away for me to catch it and return 

 it to the cage. As the bird grew larger 

 (it now being two months old) I 

 thought that some honey would be 

 more suitable food for it, but I soon 

 found to my disappointment that I 

 had made a mistake, for it died after 

 being fed only a few times on it. 



I would like to know if any other 

 subscriber has had an experience in 

 raising hummingbirds, and how he suc- 

 ceeded. 



Yours truly, 

 D. H. BURGESS, 



Petersburg, Va. 



The Henslow's Sparrow in Philadel- 

 phia County, Penn. 



There are no records of the Hens- 

 low's Sparrow ( Ammodronus hens- 

 lowi) being seen or taken during re- 

 cent years in Philadelphia county. Pa. 



At least, I have heard tell of none, and 

 offer the following two records as the 

 only ones to my knowledge of the 

 bird's occurrence in this small county. 



On September 29, 1903, one was ob- 

 served near the Friends' Asylum, at 

 Frankford, in a railorad cut, perched 

 on a dead willow sapling branch, sev- 

 eral feet up, not ten feet away from 

 me, where it alighted, when frighten- 

 ed from a small stream that flowed 

 through the cut, where it had been 

 drinking. It flew away into a near-iby 

 field, when I approached too near, as 

 I did, to obtain a better view, and it 

 was well seen and identified posi- 

 tively. 



The other bird was seen on April 

 20, 1906, at Holmesburg, in a grassy 

 field, over_ a mile from the Delaware 

 river, and on high ground. It was 



flushed out of the grass by my Fox- 

 terrier and alighted onto a bare wild 

 cherry branch, where it afforded a 

 clear, unmolested view, with its rec- 

 ognition marks plainly discernible in 

 the clear light, and at the close prox- 

 imity of about five feet. It remained 

 perched barely half a minute, but I 

 was so near that I could readily 

 distinguish it and not mistake it for 

 a Grasshopper or any other Sparrow, 

 then flew into the bushes (a row of 

 shrubs, etc., in a field), where it was 

 impossible for my dog to flush it. 



These two birds are the only ones 

 I have positively identified as Ammo- 

 dromus henslowi, for I have seen sev- 

 eral other of the Fringillidse that 

 looked like this species, but was al- 

 ways unable to secure a good, clear 

 view of them, as in these two cases, 

 consequently they cannot be included 

 on account of their doubtful authen- 

 ticity. 



On October 6, 1908, my brother, 

 William Mc K. Miller, shot at Harrow- 

 gate, Philadelphia county, Pa., with a 

 sling shot, a Henslow's iSparrow (Am- 

 modronus henslowi), thus establishing 

 an authentic record of its occurrence 

 in this small county. The bird was a 

 male in fall plumage and its skin is 

 now in my collection. On two other 

 occasions I have seen and positively 

 identifi_ed the Henslow's Bunting in 

 this county, but the capture of a bird 

 places beyond all possibility of a 

 doubt the authenticity of its occur- 

 rence. 



RICHARD F MILLER, 

 Frankford, Philadelphia, Pa. 



A Raven's Nest in a Barn. 



One nice sunny day in April, a 

 friend and myself went on a collect- 

 ing trip, using a horse and buggy for 

 convenience. We had not been gone 

 over an hour before we came to a 



