82 



TIM OOLOGI8T 



eral have been killed near Columbus 

 tbat came under my notice. Also two 

 or three were kept for some time in 

 confinement at this place (Columbus). 

 They are considered beneficial, feed- 

 ing mostly on fish which forms more 

 than half its food. It also kills birds, 

 chiefly waterfowl, and many mammals 

 of the smaller kind, and the young of 

 the larger ones. It sometimes kills 

 small lambs and pigs. I do not know 

 but it may nest in the bluffs in the 

 southwestern part of Wisconsin, along 

 the Mississippi River. 



Pigeon Hawk (Falco columbarius). 

 I have observed these hawks in both 

 Wisconsin and Illinois, and am quite 

 sure one had its nest in the main 

 park at Zion City, Illinois in, 1909, but 

 could never exactly satisfy myself 

 about it. Its food consists chiefly of 

 smaller wild birds and mammals and 

 insects. Is sometimes quite destruc- 

 tive to small chickens. 



Sparrow Hawk (Falco sparverius). 

 This beautiful hawk is a summer resi- 

 dent with us. I have found it nest- 

 ing several times in Wisconsin, but 

 have never been able to get a set of 

 its eggs. During the summer it feeds 

 almost wholly upon insects, especially 

 grasshoppers. Nests in April and May, 

 in hollow dead trees. It is quite com- 

 mon. Geo. W. H. vos Burgh. 

 Zion City, 111. 



Some Raptore Notes. 



This past spring the Birds of Prey 

 did not seem quite as common as 

 usual. 



The Red-shouldered, our most com- 

 mon hawk, was not as plentiful as 

 usual and only three nests came und- 

 er my observation. At one of these 

 nests up in the big birch tree I got a 

 quite nice photo of three pretty egg. 



On May 5th I was lucky enough to 

 find two nests of the Sharp-shinned 

 Hawk from each of which I later on 

 took nicg sgts of fresh eggs. Bp^ti 



were as usual in second growth hem- 

 lock and the old birds were noisy. 



The Coopers and Red-tails have 

 been scarce this season. My Goshawks 

 were about early in February, but a 

 pair of Horned Owls used their nest 

 in the pine tree and the Goshawks 

 left the vicinity. These woods are of 

 considerable extent and they may have 

 nested in some other part. Anyway 

 I didn't find the nest this season. 

 Early in June I saw an adult Groshawk 

 about fifteen miles from here near 

 some very large tracts of virgin timb- 

 er. 



I found nests of both the Barred and 

 Horned Owls this spring but a cou- 

 ple of little stubs nearby In which 

 Screech Owls annually nested I found 

 had blown over during the storms this 

 past winter. 



Last season I captured a young 

 Acadian Owl so I had intended making 

 search of that vicinity this spring in 

 hopes of finding a nest, but I found 

 that the bark peelers had got busy and 

 considerable timber had been cut. I 

 could find no sign of the little Owls. 

 Warren, Pa. R. B. Simpson. 



Copy. 



Dear Mr. Reader: We are just about 

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 hand to print the next issue of THE 

 OOLOGIST from. 



Perhaps it might be interesting to 

 you to know that an Oologist of this 

 size contains approximately, exclusive 

 of illustrations, 7500 words. This 

 means 216 inches of typewritten mat- 

 ter when double spaced, and written 

 on the ordinary 8i/^ x 13 typewriting 

 paper. All of which means that it 

 takes lots of copy to keep us going, 

 and to supply this is up to you. We 

 do the work and foot the bills. We 

 trust that you can furnish us at as 

 early a day as possible, such readable 

 notes as have come under your obser-. 

 vation. 



