Burns — Deposition and Incubation 375 



screamed overhead and suddenly there was no Grouse at all, 

 but only a spot in the road that was nothing but a pile of 

 leaves and dust. When the Hawk had sailed over the pile 

 of leaves took wings and flew into the woods. 



I had heard for yea-rs a clear, far-reaching cry and won- 

 dered over it, before I made the discovery that it was the 

 clan-cry of tha Quail. At sunset f-rom some fence corner a 

 clear single-syllabeled whistle goes forth, and is answered 

 from far and near by the separated Bob-whites. If there has 

 been no unusual scattering in the covey that day thsre is no 

 curfew. It is to be heard evary evening during the rabbit 

 hunting season and I have wondered if the covey dispersed 

 voluntarily for safety or whether it was frightened apart. 

 The latter is the more probable conclusion. 



The casual visitor to Oakside Farm I have not mentioned. 

 Those observers who can go far afield can furnish larger and 

 more interesting lists. My object was merely to tell of the 

 birds to be seen from a farmhouse porch. It is a curious 

 fact that my friend in the village sometimes feeds as many 

 as five male Cardinals at once, while I never have more than 

 one. This seems to me to indicate that we farmer folk who 

 have excellent advantages for bird study, neglect them, and 

 carelessly leave both the study and feeding of birds to the 

 villagers. How shall we best serve our small friends? 



Columbiana J Ohio. 



COMPARATIVE PERIODS OF DEPOSITION AND 



INCUBATION OF SOME NORTH AMERICAN 



BIRDS. 



BY FRANK L. BURNS 



Very little seems to be known regarding the exact periods 

 of incubation of our birds. Captain Bendire's observations 

 appear the most extensive until recently when some attention 

 has been given the subject by various observers, mostly in- 

 cidental to the intensive study of a single nest or perhaps a 

 colony of one species or another. 



