December, 1881.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



79 



the eggs were removed, and I could see no 

 good reason why those eggs should not be 

 in my collection. Visiting my patient 

 again, I found it convoiient to go toward 

 evening. Taking one of ray collectors 

 with me I intimated to him that we were to 

 pass by the nest of the Red-headed Wood- 

 pecker and I hoped he would see the hole 

 as we passed, for he might not be able to 

 see it when we returned, as it would be dark. 

 Although all the eggs were taken (six) 

 the old birds continued to occupy the same 

 nest. Since then I have occasionally 

 known a pair breeding about here. Last 

 year two broods were raised within two 

 miles of my office, and \ have instructed 

 my collectors not to molest them, hoping 

 they may yet appear here in numbers. — 

 IVni. Wood, East Windsor/iiil, Conn. 



Notes from Maryland. 



White-bellied Nuthatch.— For sev- 

 eral years I mistrusted that this bird bred 

 with us, as they are almost as common in 

 the spring and summer months as in win- 

 ter. But this season the matter was placed 

 beyond a doubt by the finding of the nest on 

 May 17th. It was in a hole in the decayed 

 stub of an apple tree in an orchard The 

 hole was about seven feet from the ground, 

 and contained four fresh eggs. The bird 

 was on the nest when found. It showed 

 no signs of anger, running quietly up and 

 down the trunk of a tree near by. Is not 

 the breeding of this bird as far south as 

 this unusual ? 



Robin's Egg Spotted. — The past sea- 

 son I saw an egg, which was taken from a 

 robin's nest, that had a few light red specks. 

 They were about the size and color of those 

 occasionally found on eggs of Sayornis 

 fuscus, and the distribution was about the 

 same. It was a little larger than average, 

 but of the usual ground color. 



Bald Eagle. — April 20th, 1880, a pair 

 of Eagles commenced a nest in a large tree 

 on the Potomac River, about nine miles 

 west of this town. I had a man watching 

 the nest, and I hoped to get a set of eggs. 



but the female was killed before the nest 

 was completed. 



Cow-bird. — Has any one noticed that 

 upon the advent of a Cow-bird's egg in a 

 nest all the other eggs are mysteriously 

 thrown out } I have seen this several 

 times this year. One was a Song Spar- 

 row's. On the morning that the second 

 egg was laid I saw a Cow-bird slip into the 

 nest. In a few minutes she came hurrying 

 out, and going to the nest I saw that she 

 had dropped her egg. The afternoon of 

 the same day I again went to the nest and 

 found all three eggs broken on the ground 

 below. The other was a Chipping Spar- 

 row's, with which all went well until the 

 third egg was laid, when a Cow-bird 

 dropped her egg in the nest, which was in a 

 grape vine, and about ten feet distant was 

 an apple tree. The eggs were carried to 

 this and dropped to the ground. Two of 

 them fell on some grass and were scarcely 

 broken These had x shaped holes in 

 them, which just fitted the partly open bill of 

 a Chipping Sparrow. Could the Chipping 

 Sparrows have thrown the eggs out? 



Song Sparrows. — This season a pair of 

 Song Sparrows built a nest in a honey- 

 suckle, about twelve feet from' the ground, 

 against the side of a ho'ise. The eggs of 

 this nest were destroyed by other birds. 

 They then went twenty feet higher up and 

 built again. This nest was blown down. 

 The next nest was built in a clump of 

 honeysuckles, about seven feet from the 

 ground. Here they raised their brood of 

 four young. — Edgar A. Small. 



Red-headed ^A^oodpecke^s. 



While collecting on the meadows north 

 of Hartford, on the 26th of September last, 

 I unexpectedly came upon some Red-head- 

 ed Woodpeckers {Melanerpes erythroceph- 

 alus) I shot three, two adults and a 

 young, the latter having only traces of the 

 red on the head and neck The adults had 

 not fully recovered from the moult. Dur- 

 ing the whole morning I met these birds as 

 they moved in short flights leisurely south- 



