221 



Bird -Lore 



May, 191 2, this same difficulty was not 

 experienced; the Semipalmated Sand- 

 pipers were uniformly pale, with breasts 

 much more lightly marked than in the 

 other species. Two or three were seen 

 with moderate numbers of the Least 

 Sandpiper, at Englewood, New Jersey, on 

 fresh water meadows, and even in a wet 

 field, and, on May 31, about 150 were 

 feeding in some brown marsh stubble, at 

 Mastic, Long Island. Running actively 

 about, and in plain sight on the gray- 

 brown marsh, their colors harmonized 

 so admirably with it as to render them 

 well nigh invisible. Many Swallows were 

 beating close over the ground, among them 

 Tree Swallows and one or two big black 

 Martins. A Bank Swallow, which alighted 

 motionless on the ground, was quite con- 

 spicuous; whereas three or four Sandpipers 

 running about near it, could hardly be 

 seen. A flock of them took wing and began 

 to dart about in the air. It swung out over 

 the bay, close-packed, and at high speed, 

 and with wonderful precision wheeled 

 and came back to the marsh again. 



The next day, June i, there were only 

 about twenty-five Sandpipers left. They 

 were very restless and drifting away south- 

 ward toward the ocean in small companies 

 of five of so, as though bound north by sea. 

 The first of June is a day later than the 

 writer knows of their previously being 

 recorded from Long Island. The Tree 

 Swallows were now no longer on the 

 meadows. 



The Least Sandpiper, of which a photo- 

 graph is published, had yellow legs. The 

 legs of those observed in the fall migration 

 were more greenish. — John Treadwell 

 Nichols, Englewood, N. J. 



huge bird, with its talons dug deep into 

 the clothing of his child, about to lift 

 its prey from the ground." etc. 



So runs a thrilling story that has 

 traveled far through the daily press — a 

 story distorted, exaggerated, and most 

 of it born in the brain of the newspaper 

 reporter. 



Yet there was an Eagle so near that 

 the parent believed, and still believes, 

 that it meant to attack his child, and the 

 bird, an immature Bald Eagle, was shot 

 by the child's father. 



The facts appear to be that the little 

 flaxen-haired child was playing in the sand 

 in the corner of a grape arbor and an 

 arborvitae hedge, about forty feet from the 

 back door, when, attracted by the child's 

 screams, the father rushed out to see the 

 Eagle perched upon the grape arbor about 

 eight feet above his child's head. 



The Eagle flew off, as the frightened 

 parent grabbed his child and carried it 

 into the house to its mother, and, taking 

 his gun, he ran out and toward the Eagle, 

 which was now perched in a tree at some 

 distance from the house. 



As he advanced he claims that the 

 I]agle swooped toward him, and he shot 

 twice. Noticing that the bird was settling, 

 he followed, and found that it was dead. 



There seems no doubt of the truth of 

 this; and the explanation would appear 

 to be that the Eagle, soaring high in air, 

 saw the child's head above the grass 

 over the top of the arbor, and mistook 

 it for other food, and stopped on the arbor 

 on finding his mistake. 



Four pieces of undigested fish showed 

 the nature of the Eagle's last repast. — 

 Wilbur F. Smith, So. Norwalk, Conn. 



An Eagle Story 



"Westport, Conn., June 14. — Scream- 

 ing with all the power that her little lungs 

 could develop, her strange cries reaching 

 her father's ears, was all that saved little 

 Emma, two-year-old daughter of Randolf 

 Kreiwald, from being carried off by a huge 

 American Eagle. The piercing cries reached 

 the father, who, running out, saw the 



A Screech Owl Incident 



February 19, 191 2. — While on a ramble 

 along a country road, I saw, on a fence- 

 wire across a meadow creek, a bunch of 

 reddish feathers, which upon investigation 

 proved to be a Screech Owl. It had in 

 some manner, during the previous night, 

 flown against and caught its wing on a 

 barb. There it was when I found it,. 



