THE OOLOGIST 



257 



When we once more reached Great 

 Herring Pond we saw a young Bald 

 Eagle, probably the same one which 

 we saw the day before. He attempted 

 to catch a fish with his talons while 

 we were watching him, but I could not 

 see whether he was successful or not. 

 Although this was the only Bald 

 Eagle seen on our trip this species is 

 still common around these ponds. 



Of course they are not so numerous 

 as they were twenty years ago but for 

 the last ten years they seem to have 

 held their own pretty well. I believe 

 this locality not only is, but will be 

 for years to come, one of the last 

 strongholds of the Bald Eagle in Mas- 

 sachusetts. 



The above notes are by no means a 

 complete list of the birds which we 

 saw during the three days. 1 have 

 simply mentioned these, which for 

 various reasons, most strongly attract- 

 ed our attention. Even the common 

 Chicadees, Towhees and Hairy Wood- 

 peckers prove highly interesting in a 

 locality where they are practically the 

 only small birds to be seen in a wild 

 bush grown country which stretches 

 for mile after mile as an unbroken 

 waste. 



Although trips like this lack the ex- 

 citement of hunting in the wilderness 

 proper, remote from civilization, nev- 

 ertheless they are a source of pleas- 

 ant recreation to those of us who are 

 unable to make long excursions. 



Horace O. Green. 

 Stoneham, Mass. 



Notes from Mississippi. 



In the five years that I have been 

 collecting I have observed that the 

 Bob White is a rather careless bird 

 in its nesting habits. I have found 

 single eggs a number of times in 

 fields. Last January I found a fresh 

 egg in the middle of an old cotton 

 field. I have seen their eggs in 



Meadowlark nests at least twice and 

 have found them in guinea fowl nests 

 as many as three times. One day this 

 summer I came upon a guinea nest 

 out in the field and flushed a female 

 Bob White from the nest or very near 

 it. 1 was surprised to find that the 

 nest had six guinea eggs and three 

 Bob White eggs. 



I have found or examined about 

 fifty Cardinal nests as my notes show 

 and have found that the full comple- 

 ment of eggs is usually three or some- 

 times two. But on May 8th, 1911, 1 

 found a nest in a thick tangle of 

 vines which held four eggs. All were 

 natural but appeared to be advanced 

 in incubation so I did not take the set. 

 This is the only case I have ever 

 seen or heard of that had over three 

 eggs. 



Sometime ago a number of Hungar- 

 ian Partridges were liberated near 

 Starkville, in the Northwest part of 

 the state and a few days ago while out 

 walking I flushed a single bird. I 

 could find no others although I tried, 

 so I suppose they are making poor 

 headway. 



I have searched long and earnestly 

 for a set of Bachman Sparrows in a 

 pasture near here which has several 

 groves of pines in it but could never 

 even find a nest although a school 

 mate of mine took a fine set of four 

 in this same pasture. The birds were 

 plentiful but no amount of watching 

 would help and searching was no bet- 

 ter. But this spring quite by accident 

 I stumbled on what I took to be a 

 fresh nest. I watched from a dist- 

 ance and sure enough one of the birds 

 soon went to the nest. I watched that 

 nest carefully and always from a dist- 

 ance but never got a thing for my 

 pains. I finally concluded that it was 

 an old nest and so am biding my time 

 until next year, when I'll be on hand 

 early. 



