56 



THE OOLOGIST 



ing tlie lateness whiich. some of the Os- 

 sifragse begin nesting in South Jersey. 



My next late record of tlie nesting 

 of the Crow is also a New Jersey one; 

 on May 23, 1909, I collected four 

 Crow's eggs from a nest 36 feet up 

 in a iblack gum in a narrow belt of 

 trees on the low bank of Pensanken 

 Creek, near Maple Shade, Burlington 

 County; three eggs were infertile and 

 the fourth contained a living embryo 

 over one-third developed. 



Both of these sets were undoubtedly 

 second ones of birds that had lost 

 their first clutches by accident or rob- 

 bery. 



The latest I have ever taken a set 

 of Crow's eggs in Southeastern Penn- 

 sylvania, is May 18, 1898, when I col- 

 lected a set of five fresh eggs at 

 Frankford, Philadelphia County. The 

 nest was 30 feet up in a thin scarlet 

 oak in a corner of a thick woods. This 

 was a second set, for I collected the 

 first clutch, consisting of four fresh 

 eggs, with the nest on April 30th ult., 

 from another part of the woods. It 

 was about 30 feet up in the top of a 

 slender cedar, the only evergreen in 

 the woods. The two sets were sim- 

 ilar in coloration, etc., so there can be 

 no doubt that both were laid by the 

 same bird. However since then, I 

 have several times taken the first and 

 second sets of crows and yet there are 

 ornithologists who contend that the 

 bird will not lay again if robbed. 



My next latest record of the nesting 

 of the Crow near Philadelphia is June 

 6, 1907, when R. C. Harlow and I found 

 a nest containing two young under a 

 week old and an infertile egg. It was 

 about 25 feet up in a yellow birch in 

 edge of some trees along the Wissa- 

 hickon Creek at Fort Washington, 

 Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 

 and was examined by the writer. 



Richard F. Miller. 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



Miscellaneous Bird Notes. 



September 12th a Sea Gull attracted 

 by the sight of fish swimming slowly 

 within an aquarium at Venice, Cali- 

 fornia, crashed through a pane of 

 glass in its effort to seize the fish and 

 was seriously injured, and captured 

 by those in charge of the aquarium. 



November 22d, President Taft pro- 

 claimed the reservation of 1613 acres 

 of additional land on the abandoned 

 Fort Niobraria reservation in Nebras- 

 ka as a bird sanctuary, to be continu- 

 ally maintained for the breeding of 

 Prairie Chickens, Sharp-tailed Grouse, 

 Quail and other native birds. 



November 22d, the annual "Turkey 

 Trot" attended by Governor Colquitt 

 and his staff, passed through the 

 streets of Cuero, Texas. The proces- 

 sion consisted of 18,000 live turkeys 

 on their way to the Thanksgiving 

 slaughter pens. The parade was view- 

 ed by from 12,000 to 15,000 people. 



Sergeant George Willetts has re- 

 cently returned to San Francisco from 

 Alaska, where he went for the Smith- 

 sonian Institution for the purpose of 

 collecting birds and other specimens. 

 He brought back with himi more than 

 three hundred specimens, including 

 85 different species; among them, 

 Dixon's Rock Ptarmigan, one of the 

 rarest birds of the North; also Mar- 

 bled Murrelet, and many Petrel. 



As the result of his trip, Kruzoff 

 Island has been set aside by the Gov- 

 ernment as a preserve for birds and 

 animals. He estimated there were 22,- 

 000 pairs of petrel breeding on St. 

 Laza'ria Island, and one of the curious 

 things discovered was the fact that 

 the large brown Cedar bear swam 

 from the mainland out to this island 

 and dug these birds and their nests 

 out of the ground and devoured them 

 by the thousands. 



