THE OOLOGIST. 



25 



Buntings by l)eing darker. Habits 

 same as tlie Snow Buntings. 



Pine Siskin. Noticed in eouipany 

 with Redpolls. 



Pileated Woodpecker. Found gen- 

 erally in tauiaraek wocnls. This large 

 and wary woodpecker is xery difficult 

 to get. These birds are generally found 

 far from civilization, and choose the 

 wildest places for their retreats. 



Gos Hawk. Rare. Observed several 

 specimens, one of which was pursuing 

 tx flock of tame doves, which, despite 

 liis frantic efforts managed to elude 

 liim. 



Pine Grosbeaks. Rare. Shot sever- 

 al males in red plumage. 



White-winged Crossbill. Obtained 

 several of these out of a flock which 

 were feeding in the top of a tauTarack 

 tree. 

 1 Snowy Owl. Rare. One of these 

 birds remained all of last winter on a 

 rocky island in the river until I found 

 it out, and the chances are that he will 

 now remain for some time to come, in my 

 cabinet. The Red-bellied Nuthatch, 

 Brown Creeper, Barred Owl, Long- 

 gared Owl, American Crossbill and 

 Redpolls are common. 



W. DE LA BAiniic. 



Collecting Experience. 



May 6th, aliout 10;30 o'clock in the 

 morning I left home intending to go to 

 II small lake a couple of miles distant. 

 I was going to look at some Grakle 

 nests that I had found a few days pre\-- 

 ious. After walking along the ]-oad for 

 about a mile, I climlietl a fence and 

 started across a field. I soon came up- 

 on a Mockingbird nest in a small bush. 

 Taking these, I proceeded on a short 

 distance and soon noticed a hole in a 

 dead tree a little in advance" of me tliat 

 had a feather floating at the entrance. 

 This looked rather suspicious, so'strik- 

 ing the tree with my climljers I liad the 

 satisfaction of seeing a female Sparrow 



Hawk fly out. On reaching tlie nest I 

 found it t(j contain four incubated eggs. 

 The nest at some remote time had evi- 

 dently been a flicker's nest, but of late 

 years the SpaiTow Hawks had had it as 

 their h(jme in the far side of the same 

 field. I flushed a Florida Nighthawk 

 from the ground and Avas agreeably 

 surprised on looking down to see two 

 eggs. When I blowed tJiem I found 

 them to be slightly incubated. I soon 

 reached the lake and going round to 

 the south side saw a Sparrow Hawk fly 

 from an old stub and seeing a hole near 

 the top concluded at once that it flew 

 out of it. So strapping on my climbers 

 I started up and hearing a noise above 

 me, looked up and saw a Flicker leav- 

 ing the hole. However, I went on up 

 and got five eggs. They were not 

 smooth like Woodpecker eggs usually 

 are, but were exceedingly rough, some- 

 thing like Turtle eggs. I then went 

 down to the lake, got an old Ijoat and 

 was bailing the water out when a 

 young colored boy coming down for 

 water hailed me. "Ha dere white man, 

 haint you de one dat gits bird eggs'"? I 

 of course answered in the affirmative 

 and asked if he knew of any. "Yes saw, 

 dere is a crow nest in dat big ole pine 

 wonder, I jes no runded him of de nest 

 when I hit de tr^e." That "big ole 

 pine" was not so very big around, but 

 was at least oiie Iiundred fi'et high. It 

 Was situated Ijack up in the woods two 

 or three hundred yards. I had to look 

 at the nest a long time before I could 

 make up my mind to climb it. But fin- 

 all}^ I could stand it no longer. As I 

 saw the crow silently lea^-e the nest and 

 My oft' over the tree tops, so up I went. 

 The nest which was comiJosed of sticks, 

 twigs, grass, ect., and lined with cow 

 hair contained five eggs. They were 

 a great deal smaller than the common 

 Crow eggs, and I am inclined to think 

 they are eggs of the Fish Crow (Corims 

 ossifragus.) Putting three of the eggs 

 in my mouth and taking two in my 



