THE OOLOGIST 



63 



ing woods, but could find no further 

 evidence of food killed or eaten. 



July 12. Visited the nest about 

 noon. As I was coming along the 

 wood road leading toward the nest 

 tree and about fifty yards from it, I 

 found the feathers of a robin scatter- 

 ed sparsely about as if the bird had 

 been plucked, while the hawk perch- 

 ed in a tree overhead. About this time 

 I heard the female call. As I came 

 near the tree I could see the young 

 standing on the edge of the nest. I 

 strapped on my climbing irons, but 

 had hardly taken two steps up the tree 

 when one of the young flew to a sap- 

 ling thirty or forty feet away. I kept 

 on, but hadn't gone half way up the 

 tree, when the remaining four also 

 flew. They lit in various trees and 

 bushes and three showed a disposition 

 to hang by one talon. These latter I 

 shook out and caught with much diffi- 

 culty, requiring the assistance of both 

 my wife and her sister, and placed 

 safely in trees. They could not fly 

 long distances, but by running and flut- 

 tering they could get over the ground 

 at an astonishing pace. 



The birds were well feathered, re- 

 trices about two inches long. One was 

 quite free from down, one still quite 

 white, the other three between in 

 feathering. 



The female was quite nervous, fly- 

 ing close about. For the second 

 time since discovering the nest, I 

 heard the male call once, some dis- 

 tance away. 



I finally left all five of the young 

 safely perched in the trees. The legs 

 were bright yellow, toe-nails black. 

 They could clutch quite firmly with 

 their talons, the points being sharp as 

 needles. Their breasts were white 

 with black longitudinal stripes. 



I had gone perhaps a quarter of a 

 mile beyond the nest, when I heard a 

 swallow twittering excitedly. I looked 



up in time to see the swallow and a 

 sharp-shinned hawk, which later I took 

 to be the male of the pair I had been 

 observing. If so, it was my only 

 sight of him during the whole experi- 

 ence. I could not determine whether 

 the hawk was pursuing the swallow or 

 the swallow was excited at the mere 

 sight and presence of the hawk. < 



Upon returning three or four hours 

 later to the vicinity of the nest, I was 

 able to locate but two of the young 

 hawks. They were somewhat higher 

 in the trees than I had placed them. 



Of course it is impossible to say 

 how long the young might have re- 

 mained in the nest, if they had been 

 left entirely to themselves, but in this 

 case they flew from the nest just three 

 weeks and one day from the day they 

 were hatched." 



B. G. Willard. 



Mr. W. Lee Chambers, the well 

 known business manager of the Coop- 

 er Club of California, writes to change 

 his address to R. F. D. No. 1, Los An- 

 geles, California, where he is just 

 moving into a new home completed by 

 him this winter, and adds: "Maybe 

 you think I won't be glad to get in 

 my home and at my books again." 



G. Freeman Morcom, formerly Pres- 

 ident of the Cooper Club of California, 

 has just enjoyed a visit to Illinois. 

 Sorry we did not meet him. 



Donald J. Nicholson reports the tak- 

 ing of two sets of Bald Eagle eggs 

 January Sth and January 15th and a 

 set of the Horned Owl, January Sth at 

 Orlando, Florida. This is the first 

 record we have of the season. 



A note from F. A. W. Dean of Nia- 

 gara Falls, N. Y., under date of Feb- 

 ruary 1st, 1911, says, "I leave tonight 

 on a collecting trip through Arizona, 

 New Mexico, California and Oregon; 

 headquarters at Areata, California." 



Henry W. Beers, of Bridgeport, Con- 

 necticut, whose name is on the Roll 

 of Honor as having commenced his 

 subscription to THE OOLOGIST with 

 Volume 1, number 1, is one of the early 

 renewals received this month. 



