February, 1882.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



91 



fertile? Was not the male in constant at- 

 tendance, as has been said, dashing into my 

 very eyes while the more discreet female 

 chattered in unison from the next tree 

 The added eggs "not typical?" Suppose I 

 had been content with five eggs, and in ten 

 days another collector came along and got 

 a second clutch of five, and in ten more 

 days -still another collector got the third 

 set of five. Now with no knowledg of pre- 

 vious eggs would not collectors niiinbcrs 

 two and three stoutly maintain that their 

 sets were " typical ?" And how many 

 hundreds of sets of eggs in collections 

 generally to-day could not be challenged 

 by this standard, and with this view would 

 cease to be types. Let my scientific friend 

 choose his set of dull nest-worn eggs, and 

 leave me my bright specimens taken the 

 morning they are laid with the splashes of 

 brilliant color untarnished and unfading. 



Two sets of Sharp Shinned Hawk's eggs 

 I've missed, because when breeding the 

 quartet of birds fell easy victim;; to the 

 guns of farmers' boys. There's a good 

 deal of mock*heroics written about the till- 

 er of the soil. I know of no more indis- 

 criminate and bloodthirsty being than the 

 average farmer with a gun in his hands. 

 He shoots Kingbirds because they *" live on 

 his bees," and shoots Brown Thrushes and 

 twenty Blackbirds at a shot because they 

 *' are worse than Crows " — which last by the 

 way do him no end of good. He glories 

 in killing Screech Owls, which never looked 

 at a chicken and which destroy forty mice 

 to one taken by the sleek feline thief and 

 bird-catcher on his hearth; he will upon 

 occasion wring the necks of young Marsh 

 Hawks and shoot away at the old harriers 

 when in the very act of mousing for mead- 

 ow moles, and to crown all he r-lentlessly 

 murders the little Sharp Shinned which 

 is'nt so big as one of the inmates of his 

 dove-cote. But to the farmer an Owl is an 

 Owl and a Hawk is a Hawk. In the rigors 

 of winter he puts poisoned offal in the fields 

 killing Crows and Hawks by wholesale. I 

 have actually seen three dead Fish Hawks 

 nailed on the side of an intelligent (?) farm- 



er's barn as a warning to poultry thieves. 

 So again I say, alas and alas brother collect- 

 ors, if he happens upon a nest of the sub- 

 ject of this sketch. Both male and female 

 ai'e instantly riddled with shot big enough 

 to kill a grizzly bear; with a long pole the 

 nest and its treasures are thrown to the 

 ground, and the valorous farmer trudges 

 home with his muzzle-loader proudly con- 

 scious of having protected himself and his 

 property from " them cussed Hawks." — 

 /. M. W , Norwich, Conn. 



Notes From Saratoga. 



Has a list of the birds imposed upon by 

 the Cow-bird ever been made ? Here is 

 my experience: Chipping Sparrow, Cedar- 

 bird, Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow Warbler, In- 

 digo Bird, Robin, Shore Lark, Oven Birds. 

 Found three in a Vireo's nest. Speaking of 

 large sets, I have found seven eggs in B. Ori- 

 oles' and six in the King-birds' nests. Bit- 

 terns do not nest in communities here. 

 Nests are raised above ground on rushes. 

 Does Least Bittern come as far north as 43°? 



A nest and four eggs of Canada Fly- 

 catcher was taken here in 1878. Bird shot. 

 Of a set of four Maryland Yellow-throat's 

 eggs two are without spots and two normal. 

 Have found Olive backed Thrushes breed- 

 ing 100 miles north; nestsvery compact and 

 about five feet from the ground near water. 

 Of all queer nesting places the following 

 takes the p dm. A neU of Song Sparrow 

 in a horse's skull, half buried in the sand. 

 It was a very convenient house I assure 

 you. I have had some experience with 

 Kingfishers' nests. They generally build 

 near the top of a gully near here, and by 

 measuring in and digging from above save 

 much labor. The bird is often buried. 



Is not a Field Sparrow's nest over six feet 

 from the ground unusually high. I have seen 

 One as high ; nest was very thin, eggs being 

 seen from below. A Forster's Tern was shot 

 here on September nth, 1880. A Short- 

 tailed Tern on October 8lh, 1881. A Red- 

 backed Sand-piper on October 8th. — Guy 

 C. Rich, 



