174 



Bird - Lore 



not take long to guess what had happened. 

 Two or three days before there had been a 

 snow-storm, and the old Owl, keeping her 

 eggs warm, had been covered by the falling 

 snow. The sleet and subsequent cold had 

 converted this into ice, which had frozen so 

 closely around several projections on the 

 walls of the hole as to resist all the Owl's 

 attempt to break through. 



In the center of the ice-cake was an 

 opening little more than an inch square, 

 and through this hole I could see the Owl. 

 Her head was pressed against the center of 

 the disk of ice, and this had resulted in 

 melting the hole through the thinnest part. 

 It took but a few minutes to break and 

 remove the ice, but it is no wonder that the 

 Owl had been unable to do so, as it was from 

 three to four inches thick around the edge. 



The poor bird presented a most pitiable 

 appearance, her bedraggled feathers hang- 

 ing in wet, stringy masses, with lumps of 

 ice adhering to parts of the plumage. I 

 pulled her from the hole, for she was so 

 stiff and weak as to be unable to fly. I suc- 

 ceeded in greatly improving at least her 

 appearance by drying and smoothing her 

 plumage, and left her sitting in an appar- 

 ently dazed condition in a cedar tree not far 

 from the nest. 



Before I left, her mate was observed flying 

 about among the large oaks near by, but he 

 did not go to the nest. Whether the Owl 

 recovered or not I do not know, but this 

 year (1907) the old hole was found to be 

 unoccupied when I paid it my annual visit. 



It may be well to add that in her strug- 

 gles to escape the imprisoned Owl had 

 broken her eggs into small fragments. Also 

 that a feather on the ice-cake showed that 

 her mate had visited the nest while she was 

 entombed within. — W. DeW. Miller, 

 Plainfield, N. J. 



Prairie Horned Larks in Connecticut 



Prairie Horned Larks breed in Berkshire 

 County, Mass., and in the northern New 

 England states, but I can find no record 

 of their occurrence in Connecticut, except 

 during migrations. 



While spending my vacation at Wash- 

 ington, Conn., in the summer of 1906, from 



the middle of July to the end of August, I 

 saw almost daily a flock of between twenty 

 and twenty-five of these birds on a side-hill 

 pasture lot not far from the house. 



They fed on the ground, and, when 

 startled, flew to the top of a stone wall or 

 into a tree; unless further disturbed, they 

 immediately returned to the ground to con- 

 tinue feeding. If suddenly startled, the flock 

 would rise and fly to a distant part of the 

 field, uttering on the wing a note that 

 sounded like tzee-a-njuee, tzee-a-ivee. 



I believe that the Larks nested here this 

 year (1906). Only four or five were in adult 

 plumage, the rest having the plumage of the 

 immature bird. As some were here all 

 summer, there can be no chance that they 

 bred elsewhere and then wandered here. 

 Likewise I was told of a nest that had been 

 found, which corresponded with a descrip- 

 tion of the Lark's nest and eggs, although 

 the person at the time did not know what 

 the birds were. — [Will the writer of this 

 note kindly send his or her name for pub- 

 lication ? — Ed.] 



Red-breasted Nuthatches and Pine- 

 Finches on Staten Island, N. Y. 



In Bird-Lore for December, 1906, Mr. 

 Dutcher described a remarkable migration 

 of Red-breasted Nuthatches over Fire Island 

 Beach, N. Y. While no such flight was 

 noticed on Staten Island, still these birds 

 were unusually abundant throughout the 

 fall of 1906, the first being seen about Sep- 

 tember I, and the last remaining till late in 

 the autumn. 



Pine-Finches, too, were present in for 

 large rnumbers during the winter of 1906-7 

 than in the two preceding. They were most 

 numerous on the beach on the south side of 

 the island, where they fed on the ground 

 and in the goldenrods. 



Singularly enough, both birds were also 

 common on Staten Island during the season 

 of 1903-4, when the Nuthatches were ob- 

 served from September till November, and a 

 few the following spring, and the Pine- 

 Finches were even more numerous in the 

 central part of the island than during the 

 past winter. — James Chapin, Ne^vj Brighton^ 

 Staten Island, N. T. 



