THE OOLOGIST 



88 



flivver. 



After a while we went back to the 

 location, and as I looked over at the 

 nest, to my surprise, 1 saw Mrs. Duck 

 Hawk on the nest. There we were, 

 comparativelj' close together — and 

 both quite surprised. The bird scram- 

 bled off the shelf and launched again 

 into the air with much racket. As 1 

 looked again at the eggs, 1 could see 

 only two on the shelf, and 1 thought 

 probably the bird had knocked one off 

 in her hurried departure. But this 

 wasn't so, for when we got to the nest 

 there were the three eggs safe and 

 sound, but one had been rolled back 

 out of sight under the ledge. 



I wish I had a picture of that Duck 

 Hawk, surprised on the nest shelf — 

 it would be a fine example of bird ex- 

 pression. Surprise, fear, challenge, 

 courage — all there in wonderful inde- 

 scribable combination. 1 have never 

 been so close to one before or since. 

 Karl A. Pember. 



THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD 



By H. H. Johnson, Pittsfield, Maine. 



The land west of my barn slopes 

 gently down to low ground, a swale, 

 and this low land drains into the river 

 a few rods distant. Birds that fre- 

 quent low, wet ground are often found 

 in this swale, such as Rails, Bitterns, 

 Swamp Sparrows, Black Ducks, Red- 

 winged Blackbirds, but excepting the 

 Blackbirds and Sparrows, none have 

 been found nesting, the swale being 

 near to a highway and is also cut over 

 each year for the hay it produces. 



The higher land or slope is used for 

 the growing of crops and grassland. 

 Here the birds which prefer the more 

 dry ground for nesting make their 

 homes: Birds such as Grass Pinch, 

 Song and Savanna Sparrows, Bobo- 

 links, Meadow Larks, etc. 



In the spring of 1920 this slope and 

 as much of the swale as would permit 



of cultivation was prepared and plant- 

 ed to corn. Since the time for the 

 planting of corn and the hatching and 

 feeding of the young of the Crow to 

 a large extent coincide, it behooves the 

 farmer of this State of Maine to devise 

 various ways of protecting the sprout- 

 ing corn from those "imps of darkness," 

 the Crows. Sometimes the seed is 

 soaked in water in which copperas has 

 been dissolved ; some use an o'.\ of 

 tar with which the seed corn is coated; 

 others string common twine over their 

 planted fields, stakes being used to 

 hold it a short distance above the 

 ground; still others stand effigies of 

 themselves or their wives in the corn- 

 fields, using cast-off clothes of various 

 members of the family to create the 

 likeness. But the sagacious old Crows, 

 their intellect no doubt sharpened by 

 the experience of former years and 

 the continued calls of a number of 

 hungry young, disregard all these ex- 

 pedients and following down a corn 

 row, the sprouts of which are just 

 peeping through the ground, will pull 

 them up in order to reach the grain 

 from which each sprout springs. If 

 the seed has been coated with oil of tar 

 it is dropped, but if uncoated or un- 

 soaked seed is found, the grains are 

 carried to the young; in any case the 

 fields suffer to a considerable extent, 

 and it is almost useless to replant 

 here with the expectation of a crop, 

 our growing season is so short. 



It so happened the season of 1920 

 was chosen by a pair of Red-winged 

 Blackbirds in which to build a nest 

 and rear a brood of young in the swale 

 at the foot of the cornfield. I found 

 the nest when preparing the ground 

 for planting, June 3rd; the eggs, four 

 in number, being partly incubated. 

 The Red-winged Blackbird in this lo- 

 cality customarily builds its nest In a 

 low willow bush or a bunch of hard- 

 hack, a low growing shrub; a shrub 



