170 



THE OOLOGIST 



Accidental Death of a Sparrow. 



Seeing an excellent article in a re- 

 cent number of The Condor on acci- 

 dental deaths of birds, reminded me of 

 a curious fate of a sparrow, probably 

 P. domesticus,, which I ran across 

 early in November, 1906 while walk- 

 ing close to the edge of a small patch 

 of woods. 



I was hunting for bats and it was 

 therefore nearly dark. Having secur- 

 ed several good specimens, I was 

 about to quit the woods when a dark 

 object hanging in a small tree attract- 

 ed my attention. 



It proved to be the complete skele- 

 ton of a sparrow hanging feet down 

 and the neck was firmly wedged into 

 a crotch. The bird evidently made a 

 brave fight for life, dying with its 

 'mandibles open, gasping for breath. 

 Of course there is a possibility that 

 the sparrow was shot and, dropping 

 from a higher branch, was caught in 

 the crotch, half dead on its downward 

 fall. However it is a most interest- 

 ing example of a bird's death, and 

 holds a valuable place in my collec- 

 tion. P. G. Howes. 



Kingbird and Dragon-fly. 

 Editor Oologist: — 



A brief description of something I 

 saw in Ohio last summer might inter- 

 est your readers. It occurred one 

 evening in July. I was spending my 

 vacation with an uncle on his farm 

 and among the many interesting na- 

 ture studies which were mine to en- 

 joy from day to day, nothing aroused 

 my interest so much as the incident 

 of a Kingbird pursuing and capturing 

 a Dragon-fiy. 



The bird left its "lookout point" at 

 the top of an old apple tree and swift- 

 ly darted for the fly which had come 

 within the zone of the bird's foraging 

 territory. The fly, however, was not 

 an easy prey and, discerning the dan- 



ger, quickly circled to a higher alti- 

 tude. 



The Kingbird instantly followed, 

 circling above the fly and swooped 

 down viciously making a strike at the 

 fly. Again the fly evaded the attack 

 and circled to a still higher plane. 

 The bird was not to be baffled and 

 once more circled above the fly. By 

 this time they had reached an alti- 

 tude of more than one hundred feet 

 directly above the spot where the at- 

 tack was first made. 



On the part of the bird the battle 

 was a fierce one, while the defensive 

 tactics of the fly kept driving it high- 

 er and higher. The attacks of the 

 bird were repeated eight times, each 

 downward swoop carrying it below 

 the fly and making it necessary to rise 

 above the fly before the succeeding at- 

 tack could be made. The fly was now 

 out of sight, but the bird was finally 

 successful and came dipping back to 

 earth with the victim in its beak. 



H. Donald Hootman. 

 Eureka, 111. 



A Word Personal. 



During the last four months, for rea- 

 sons that we will make known to our 

 readers in due time, we have been un- 

 able to give that attention to "The 

 Oologist"' which it deserves, nor the 

 attention which it shall receive from 

 us in the future. When the story is 

 told to you, we have no doubt but that 

 you will be interested, and will be 

 glad that we took the time as we did 

 for other matters. 



A decided improvement will be no- 

 ticed in this issue, which improvenient 

 will continue in future issues; as we 

 propose this coming year to put out 

 a better magazine than has ever been 

 put out under the Oologist name by 

 anybody at any time. And we would 

 be glad to have our readers express 

 their opinion freely at any and all 



