THE OOLOGIST 



73 



preaching trespasser until he is al- 

 most upon it, when it flushes up in a 

 startled and frightened way and im- 

 mefliately makes off as if it was un- 

 aware of the intruder's close prox- 

 imity. These instances would appear 

 to indicate that it is devoid of its 

 usual acute hearing when upon the 

 ground. This is borne out by the fact 

 that the noise made by the trespasser 

 scares up Meadow Larks, Song, Field 

 and Grasshopper Sparrows, and other 

 birds, in advance of him and between 

 the feeding flicker, but their flight 

 does not apparently alarm it, and con- 

 sequently this circumstance some- 

 times makes me disposed to regard 

 the bird's fearlessness (?) as a defect 

 in, or lack of hearing. 



Invariably, the bird cannot see the 

 intruder on account of the foliage in 

 which it is feeding, for they take Wing 

 readily enough when on barren or 

 scanty, or thinly, foliaged grounds, 

 where they can see the approaching 

 trespasser, with their usual wariness. 

 From this, it would then seem that 

 thev are deficient in their sense of 

 hearing. 



In this connection I shall relate an 

 incident that befell a Flicker one sum- 

 mer day in 190.5, at Bustleton, Penn- 

 sylvania. A spark from a passing 

 train set fire to an old neglected grass 

 field and it was immediately in a 

 blaze, fanned by a brisk southwest 

 wind. 



While I watched the blaze as it 

 swept swiftly toward a hedgerow in 

 which I stood, devouring the tinder- 

 like grass with terrible avidity, I was 

 surprised to see a Flicker jump up al- 

 most in the flames and make off ahead 

 of the fire with rapidly vibrating 

 wings, and with seemingly scorched 

 feathers. 



It had been feeding on ants and as 

 usual was entirely oblivious to any 



danger, and was unaware of the fire 

 until it was almost upon it, giving it 

 barely time to escape. The fire 

 swept forward so swiftly that it was 

 almost upon the bird before it felt the 

 heat of the blaze. 



In less than ten minutes that blaze 

 caused the destruction of a seven acre 

 field of grass and ruined a hedgerow 

 of bushes and briers; it burned up 

 nests of Field and Song Sparrows, and 

 Meadow Larks, containing eggs and 

 young. 



Richard F. Miller. 



The Right Kind of a Collection, 

 W. H. Werner of Atlantic City, New 

 Jersey, is one of the real old time field 

 ornithologists, having been an active 

 collector for over forty-five years. As 

 the result of his efforts he now pos- 

 sesses one of the most beautiful col- 

 lections of local species to be found 

 anywhere in the United States, com- 

 prising something over three hundred 

 varieties of North American Birds, in 

 each instance accompanied by the 

 nest, eggs and a pair of birds in full 

 plumage, each mounted in a proper 

 case and surrounded by a reproduc- 

 tion of natural conditions. 



Sapsuckers. 



Iowa has one beautiful bird that is 

 a tree destroyer — the yellow-bellied 

 sap sucker or woodpecker. It is he 

 that bores the holes around the boles 

 of certain trees, to drink the sap as 

 it comes up in the siiring. His work 

 is done in the summer, and in the 

 spring he is early at the fountains. 

 The Siberian crab and some kinds of 

 young evergreens are his favorite 

 trees. These perforations cover the 

 entire lower half of the bole of the 

 tree. The tree begins to decay from 

 the center, and while it is in full leaf 

 a strong wind will take it down. Hav- 

 ing lost several trees through his at- 



