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Bird - Lore 



foothills to be troubled by this; ours live in 

 the orchard, and we prize them. 



Apropos of Hawks — I have seen very few 

 this winter, although Mr. Bartlett had told 

 me of the great flocks which usually winter 

 here, and I wonder if their scarcity has any- 

 thing to do with the unusual trouble we are 

 having with rodents! Our new ditch banks 

 are literally riddled with gopher holes, and 

 we are having great trouble in irrigating. 

 Yesterday they found about thirty holes in 

 half a mile of ditch ! 



The New Mexico rodents which break 

 our ditches are gophers, also "commercial 

 rats," field mice and others. We are rodent- 

 ridden. We have had great trouble with 

 the rat-holes in ditches causing flooding and 

 delays in work. I saw a number of Hawks 

 last autumn, but only one group of five all 

 winter, although they are said to winter 

 here. This is a wonderful country and 

 almost anything can be done agriculturally 

 if the rodents and insects can be kept down. 

 We have more pests than I ever before saw 

 or dreamed of; what would become of us 

 without the birds? And yet they are cen- 

 sured for taking some grain and fruit, while 

 it has literally to be snatched from insects. 

 The Tanager is also greatly censured and 

 often shot for molesting the bees. 



I often watched them last summer and 

 never found them doing any harm. I am 

 happy to say that the Flickers did not return 

 to our eaves. I hear them all about us. Our 

 western Flycatchers and Meadowlarks are 

 numerous and charming. — (Mrs.) Charles 

 T. Bartlett, Victoria, N. M. 



The Blue Jay's Food 



I noticed in the April, 1907, number of 

 Bird-Lore what is said about the Blue Jay 

 as a cannibal. I fear the half has not been 

 told; still, I would not wage war on the 

 saucy, brilliant fellow who gladdens our 

 grove the year round Five or six years ago 

 my manager had a serious attack of making 

 money raising chickens, and purchased in- 

 cubators, brooders, sanitary coops, etc. 

 After the little chicks were placed in the 

 brooders and confined in little pens about 

 sixteen feet square, the Blue Jays found they 



had a good thing and began acting up to 

 their belief in its goodness by killing the 

 chicks from one to three weeks old by the 

 dozens. A Jay would swoop down into the 

 pen, hit a chick nearly always in the eye 

 and off again. In a few minutes back he 

 would come and give the little chick another 

 peck, and usually about the third time kill 

 him, pick him up and fly a little distance 

 away, pick out the brains and begin an 

 attack on another chick. We tried to pre- 

 vent this destruction by keeping ou the 

 watch and frightening them away, but still 

 the)' would succeed in killing as many as 

 twenty in a day. Finally anger took the 

 place of admiration, and guns were called 

 into use. Needless to say that the firing 

 caused the migration from our groves of 

 nearly all the birds we had protected for 

 years, as well as the death of the Jays. 



There is no question as to the killing of 

 the chicks by the Jays, for many of us 

 watched the manner of the Jay's attacks 

 from start to fatal ending. If the chicken- 

 raising had been continued I am sure other 

 protection than the gun for the little fellows 

 would have been instituted. — A. H. Barber, 

 Waukesha, Wis. 



Nesting- Sites of the American Long- 

 eared Owl in Manitoba 



In "Notes from Field and Study" for 

 March- April, 1907, there is a note by A. 

 D. Tinker* on the "Unusual Nesting Site 

 of the American Long-eared Owl." 



In Manitoba it is not a very unusual 

 occurrence to find these birds nesting on the 

 ground. The nests that I have seen have 

 always been in woods among aspens and 

 willows, in rather damp situations, little or 

 no attempt being made to build a nest. 



This habit seems to be practiced only 

 when no old Crows' nests are to be found 

 in the immediate vicinity, as such nests 

 seem to be always used when in a suitable 

 situation. 



In my twenty years' experience I have in 

 no case found a nest of this species above 



*We take this opportunity to correct a typographical 

 error, Mr. Tinker's name having been inadvertently 

 spelled with an F. 



