162 



THE OOLOGIST. 



have plenty of compuny besides thi'ii' 

 own brothers and sisters. 



Will de la Bakre. 

 Minneapolis, Minn. 



Notes from the Audubon Ornithological Club- 



A friend of mine in Caldwell, Wis., 

 in a letter of June nineteenth tells me of 

 an albino Robin that he has recently 

 captured. It is pure white with no 

 markings. 



A few days ago I killed an English 

 Sparrow in a manner that conld not be 

 called a violation of the city law, which 

 protects these plagues. I was riding 

 my bicycle down Jackson Boulevard, 

 when an English Sparrow that tried to 

 cross ahead of me was struck by a 

 spoke and stunned. I took it home 

 and put it in a cage. It was afterwards 

 killed by a cat. 



On the fourth of July I saw a female 

 English Sparrow with several of the 

 secondaries of the left wing pure white. 



On examining an old note-book [ 

 find a nest of young Robins recorded 

 on March 12, 1888. Is not that rather 

 early for this locality. There was snow 

 «m the ground at the time. A pair of 

 evening Grosbeaks w^ere seen at Cald- 

 well, Wis. as late as April 1st, this 

 year. 



When the members return from their 

 vacations I think you can expect some 

 good notes from the Club. 



A. R. Hager, 

 Pres. A. O. C. 

 Chicago, Ills. 



An ImpriMned "Wren. 



On the 8th of May, last, a pair of 

 House Wrens began to build a nest in a 

 bird-box placed in some vines near my 

 home. 



After working at it for quite a while 

 the nest was completed. After this, at 

 different times, I investigated the nest 

 by removing the back of the box, when 



the old birds were away, but never 

 found any eggs. 



June 21st. I opened the box and 

 found that the old bird was there- 

 dead, Avith the appearance of having 

 been so at least a week. 



On examining the box I found that 

 the entrance was tilled full of twigs, 

 packed so tight as to render it impossi- 

 ble for the bird to get out, (this being 

 the only opening except two small air 

 holes.) It occurs to me that, as the 

 nest had been so long without eggs, 

 that the male bird had imprisoned its 

 mate so as to compel her to lay, much 

 after the manner of the Hornbill, a 

 bird, native of Asia and Africa, which 

 fastens the female in a hollow tree 

 leaving only a small aperture through 

 which to receive air and food, there to 

 remain until incubation is complete. 



The nest contained two eggs, one of 

 which was of the average size, while 

 the other was much shorter being 

 almost globular. 



M. L. FiSHEK, 



Lycoming Co., Pa. 



A Robin Caught by a Barbed-wire Fence. 



While passing through a woods one 

 day in the summer of 1888, I came 

 across a robin, firmly fastened to the 

 barbs of a wire fence. 



A closer examination showed that 

 one barb had passed through one wing, 

 and another had entered the breast, 

 holding the bird so firmly that it ciould 

 not possibly have released itself. 



As it had bled freely I do not think it 

 could have lived very long after its im- 

 palement. It had evidently been dead 

 several days Avhen I found it, and had 

 probably been flying rapidly when the 

 barbs caught it; and there was also 

 evidence that it had struggled violently 

 to free itself, but in A^ain. 



Wilfred A. Brotherton, 



Oakland Co., Mich. 



