52 



THE OOLOGIST. 



night they settled down in ;i swampy 

 pasture, as if tiled of tliglit. Many 

 boys had been watching tlu-ui before 

 they came down and aeeordingly made 

 a detour around them with shotgun 

 and rifle. In spite of their eaution, 

 only three or four fat fellows were bag- 

 ged, the r(s: lising in a huge dark mass 

 of necks and wings out of range. The 

 excitement, however, kept many bang- 

 ing away with rifles, some parties tak- 

 ing them for geese and thinking to have 

 a treat. I secured one foi' mo uiling, 

 but he was Aery IjaiUy torn 

 A\ith someone's charge of bxickshot. 

 They were probably following the 

 warm rains, northward tinding the 

 ctimate on this side of the range more 

 agreeable. To-day, Feb. 4th, at dark, 

 saw a small baud of Cranes flying low, 

 answering their leader's deep cry with 

 ■R^eary voices, as it was stormy weather. 

 They, like the Loon, haunt the marshy 

 lakes in this locality. This summer I 

 found two Ruby-throated Humming- 

 birds dead in the window of an okl 

 house, having killed themselves against 

 the window. They were male and fe- 

 male. I put them in my cabinet as 

 they were perfectly preserved. 



Uriah L. Hektz, 



Kent, Wash. 



wei'e not a>: other eggs of this species, 

 dull whitish, thickly speckled and 

 dashed with dark brown and purplish 

 gray, but of a pure, clear white color,, 

 evenly ami tliinly spotted Avith a light 

 purplisli gray. 



I think that the change in the color- 

 ation of the eggs in this case is due to 

 the same cause that caused the plumage 

 of the parrots to change and that is, 

 I being kept in conflnement. 



John Luhrman, 

 Jersey Citj-, X. J. 



The Abnormal Coloration of the Eggs of a Pair 

 of Passer Domesticus Kept in Oonnnement. 



Upon reading Mr. George N. Law- 

 rence's article on .the change in the 

 <^oloration of certain parrots, which he 

 considers is caused by the birds being 

 kept in confinement (see Auk vol. 6, No. 

 1) brings to my mind the change in col- 

 oration of the eggs of a pair of English 

 Sparrows kept in confinement. 



One winter a pair of Sparrows entered 

 the kitchen of a friend of ours through 

 an open door, vrhereupou the door was 

 shut and the birds were caught and put 

 into a cage, Avhere they thrived very 

 well. The female laid three or four 

 clutches of eggs every season, which 



The Evening Grosbeak. 



This lieautiful bird is not a very 

 plentiful one here, but they may be 

 seen in flocks in winter and early 

 spring and sometimes fall, but ge«^er- 

 ally about the time cherry trees begin 

 to blossom, as they are fond of the bks- 

 soms. They also eat maple buds a 

 great deal. 



On Jan. 26th, I run across a flock of 

 about twenty Grosbeaks, mostly males 

 and I picked out one and tapped him 

 over with a load of shot from my cata- 

 pult and afterwards made a skin of him 

 which now adorns my cabinet. I find 

 the pocket catapult comes in handy 

 when you suddenly run across a bird 

 you want. 



The specimen before me measures 

 7 3-10 inches long and the wing is 4 3-10 

 inches. The forward half of the body 

 is yellowish-olive shading into j^ellow 

 on the rump and under tail coverts; the 

 crown, wings, upper tail coverts, and 

 tail, black; frontal band, bright yellow. 

 The beak is very thick and powerful. 

 I found this out while attempting to 

 catch a wounded bird when he caught 

 me instead. 



The nest is very rare as only a few 

 are on record, but no dou'ot they nest 

 in some of the i:)ine forests in or near 

 the mountains. 



Clyde L. Keller, 

 Marion Co., Oregon. 



