Notes from Field and Study 



301 



learned to like the comfortable bird-houses 

 and Berlepsch logs placed for their especial 

 benefit by the side of young apple and 

 pear orchards, plentifully supplied with 

 field mice (this latter provision not inten- 

 tional however) for the sustenance of a 

 large, rapidly growing family as shown 

 by the accompanying photograph. 



Since nearly 400 acres of Stuart Acres 

 are devoted to young fruit-trees, the value 

 of the Screech Owl as an orchard assistant 

 is fully recognized, as examination of the 

 owl nesting-boxes invariably shows the 



much looking, I discovered the tiny nest, 

 saddled on a lower bough of a living 

 hemlock. She was evidently setting, and 

 would remain motionless for a moment on 

 her eggs. The nest was too high to peer 

 into, but later in the season the empty 

 nest was secured. 



A nest discovered June 9, in the pile of 

 old wood and d6bris at the foot of the 

 cascade which descends some 150 feet 

 over the rocky bed of the mountain brook 

 in the western gulf, was again investi- 

 gated. The sitting bird was flushed a 



A FINE LINE OF SCREECH OWLS 

 Photographed by Dr. W. H. Rowland 



remains of countless mice and other small 

 rodents destructive to young fruit-trees. 



The photograph here shown was taken 

 May 15, 1919 in a young apple orchard. 

 A bird-house of the Berlepsch log type 

 has been occupied for several years by 

 Screech Owls. — F. A. Stuart, Mar- 

 shall, Mich. 



Bird Notes from the Lake George 

 Region 



While gathering mosses from the water 

 in the head gulf in the deep wild-wooded 

 ravine at the southern base of Peaked 

 Mountain,, in the lower Adirondacks, June 

 16, 1918, my attention was attracted to 

 the whirring of the wings of the Ruby- 

 throated Hummingbird, and, without 



week ago and went off with drooping wingS) 

 feigning to be injured. The nest, placed 

 in a little secluded nook in the debris near 

 a larger stick, contained five creamy white 

 spotted eggs. The nest was loosely made 

 of old leaves, pine needles, and rootlets. 

 Today young birds replaced the eggs, and 

 in a minute or two the parent birds came 

 about to feed the young. It was the 

 Louisiana Water-Thrush, with the unmis- 

 takable white (!) line over the eye. In 

 Eaton's 'Birds of New York,' this bird is 

 not mentioned as occurring in Washington 

 County; and I believe this is the first 

 published nesting record of this austral 

 species in the county. In Chapman's 

 'Warblers of North America,' second edi- 

 tion, the summer range of the Louisiana 

 Water-Thrush is given as far north as 



