38 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



8. The Eider duck (and some other birds) plucks the soft down 

 from her own breast to make a warm feather bed for her babies. 



9. The Hornbill imprisons the sitting mother in the hollow of the 

 tree where she nests, plastering up the opening with mud, leaving only 

 a small opening, through which he feeds her till the eggs are hatched. 

 She has to stay at home. 



10. The Nighthawk and Whip-poor-will, "camp out" upon a rock 

 on the ground, and the lazy Cow-bird places its egg in the nest of 

 other birds. 



FROM OUR MAIL BAG. 



One day this summer as I was walking in the garden where there 

 are many sun-flowers, I noticed a Goldfinch eating the seeds. I moved 

 slowly towards him in order to get a better view of him. To my sur- 

 prise he did not appear to be frightened, but kept on feeding. I walk- 

 ed still nearer and raised my hand, and as he did not ofiEer to leave, I 

 picked him up. I took him into the house where he perched on my 

 finger and looked curiously around, but appeared not at all frightened. 

 After a time I took him out of doors and after a moment he flew away 

 and perched on a sunflower again. I have heard of birds getting 

 drunk on different things which they eat, and I have wondered if the 

 Goldfinch could have become drunk on the seeds which it was eating. 



Gerald B. Thomas. 



On my neighbor's chimney a lightning rod runs up the side of the 

 chimney. On this a Chimney Swift impaled itself in attempting to go 

 down the chimney. It showed that the bird flew downward with such 

 force that the rod stuck up about a foot above the dead bird. 



Joe C. Nelson, Mo. 



THE BROWNIES. 



In the summer of 1901, a pair of wood thrush built a nest in a dwarf 

 apple tree about ten feet above the ground. The tree stood in the 

 garden about twenty-five feet from the house veranda. The birds 

 raised one brood of three, and became quite tame during the summer, 

 and foraged daily on the lawn for worms, etc. 



In the same yard. Blue Jays had nested in a tall evergreen. The 

 thrushes seemed to consider the Jays their enemies; and when they 

 found one of the young jays under an apple tree near by, tried to kill 

 it by darting down from the tree, and striking it. May 7th of this 

 summer (1902) the Wood thrushes song was first heard, perched on a 

 limb of a tree in the same yard, soon after its mate was seen. These 

 were supposed to be the same that nested in the dwarf apple tree last 



