The nidioIvOGisT. 



175 



Do Wading Birds Stoim? 



WOODCOCK ON NEST. 



ments, showing the veined skin on the in- 

 side, which always remains as proof of the 

 previous hatching. I am of the opinion 

 that these two eggs had for some reason 

 hatched sooner than the remaining ones, 

 and that the young were in hiding among 

 the surrounding herbage or were in the 

 keeping of the male bird while the mother 

 finished the arduous task attendant upon 

 incubation. Have any of my readers ob- 

 served anything definite in regard to the 

 hatching of the Woodcock and the after- 

 care of its young? 



All have doubtless witnessed the "tower- 

 ing" of the Woodcock as the breeding 

 season approaches, when he mounts twenty- 

 five or thirty feet in the air, uttering his 

 weird cry, as suddenly to drop out of sight 

 again in the reeds or brake. This is cer- 

 tainly a beautiful performance, carried on 

 from dusk into the night, and no doubt de- 

 notes the exuberant spirit of domestic hap- 

 piness. 



If. Whitney Watkins. 



Manchester, Mich. 



1FIND in the Nidiologist but little to 

 the point about wading birds swim- 

 ming. What birds do under excep- 

 tional circumstances, as when shot, is, it 

 seems to me, not the question. The only 

 time that I ever saw a wader swimming — 

 an act entirel}' uninfluenced by man, was as 

 follows: I had spent the day of June 30, 

 1890, visiting the center of St. Paul's 

 Island in Bering Sea, and after reaching a 

 small pool in a low place on the cinder-cov- 

 ered tundra, had sat down on a stone at a 

 little distance to rest. Soon a Snowflake 

 (^Plectrophenax nivalis townsendi,) flew to 

 the edge of the pool and began drinking; 

 it was soon followed by a Lapland I^ong- 

 spur {Calcarius lappoiiicus,) and presently 

 by a Pribylof Sandpiper (Tringa ptilocne- 

 mis)^ They drank and searched for food 

 about the edges of the pond while very 

 close together, apparently not noticing 

 each other or myself. Soon the Sandpiper 

 walked into the water up to its breast and 

 attempted to wade to some small rocks 

 near the center of the pond. The water 

 being too deep he deliberately swam out to 

 the nearest. Walking on it for a few mo- 

 ments he swam to another, and after visit- 

 ing them all, flew back to the shore. The 

 day was a beautiful one for this region ; 

 nothing else living was in sight except 

 these three birds, and after spending a full 

 half hour watching their movements I left 

 them as I had found them. 



William Palmer. 

 Washington, D. C. 



The Northern Raven {Corims corax simiatus) 

 which has been noted as formerly nesting on the 

 Farallon Island, is still found inhabiting the inac- 

 cessible cliffs. Mr. Barlow observed a pair of 

 them while on the Island in June. It was on a 

 densely foggy and windy morning and they were 

 flying laboriously toward a cliff on which is a nest 

 which has been in use for several years at least. 

 The nest is inaccessible except by descending from 

 the top of the precipice by rope. 



Mr. Grinnell reports the Olive-sided Fly-catcher 

 from Pasadena, Cal. 



