THE IOWA ORNITHOLOGIST. 



Marathon, Iowa. In writing your 

 notes on the last two fannilies named, 

 please follow the directions as given 

 above. 



Go to work at once preparing your 

 notes and have them ready to send in 

 promptly on the dates named, as we 

 want to get the next issue out early, 

 for it will be the New Year [January] 

 number. 



GENERAL NOTES OJf INTER- 

 EST. 



The Tufted Titmouse in Iowa. — On 

 the 20th or September, 1994, I saw 

 two specimens of (Parus bicolor) with 

 a company of Black-capped Chick- 

 adees (Paras atricapillus) in Van 

 Baren county, Iowa. — VY. G. Savage, 

 Hillsboro, Iowa. 



Change of Habits in our Native 

 Birds. — "It would be as interesting 

 from an evolut'onary point of view, 

 to note any change in the habits of an 

 animal, any change in the way it 

 adjusted itself to|its environmontp, as 

 to note the change in its bodily form 

 or structure. It seems to me that 

 such a change is taking piece with 

 the English Sparrov^'. A dozan or 

 more years' ago when these aliens 

 first became a feature in our fauna 

 it seemed probable that our native 

 birds would be entirely driven from 

 the neibhborhood of our cities and 

 villages. Our Eobias, Bluebirds, 

 Catbirds, Grosbeaks, Sparrows, Mar- 

 tins and the like were mobbed, driven 

 from their food and nests and gener- 

 ally taught to believe, with Charles 

 Summer, that "life is a serious busi- 

 ness." In this section, at any rate, 

 a change has gradually taken place. 



Either our native birds have un- 

 expectedly developed powers of resis- 

 tance at first unsuspected or the 

 pugnacity of the English Sparrows 

 has diminished, for certainly our own 

 songsters have not been driven away, 

 but on the contrary, seem as numer- 

 ous as they were twenty years ago. 

 Ii'or the past two or three years, since 

 my attention has been called to the 

 matter, I have seen little if any peise- 

 cufcion of our native birds by the 

 foreign sparrows; on the contrary, 

 our own birds are now often the 

 aggressors, and if tliey do not indulge 

 in persecution themselves, are adepts 

 at defense. Vory commonly a Jay, 

 Robin, or Citbird will from pure 

 mischief hustle a flock of Sparrows 

 into a desperate flight. In and about 

 Rockford, Illinois, a place of 30,000 

 inhabitants, the native birds have not 

 been so numerous in twenty years as 

 in the two or three just passed. The 

 conditions of the adjustment between 

 tha Sparrows and our common birds 

 have changed to some extent, it seems. 

 As has been noted before, the abunc'- 

 ance of the sparrows may serve to 

 explain the increase in the number of 

 the smaller birds of prey, — with us 

 notably the Screech Owl." — F. H. 

 KiracoU, Rockford, Illinois. — "The 

 Auk." 



A Set of five of the Prairie 

 Horned Lark.— On April 12th, 1892, 

 a friend and myself started on a search 

 for egg3 of this species. Our firat 

 find was a very exceptional set of five 

 normally colored eggs, which on 

 blowing proved slightly incubated* 

 This is the first set c f over four I ever 

 found, 'nd had three more cojumon."' 



