6 THE OSPREY. 



from where he expects to be rewarded by firing a sure shot, but Mr. Jay who 

 has been watching sets off a mocking and defiant alarm which the quarry full 

 well knows the import of and scampers to cover while the Jay flits across the 

 canon, seemingly calling out "cheap-cheap-cheap! feel cheap? feel cheap?" 

 He indirectly acts as sentinel for rabbits and quail and often pays the penalty 

 by being filled with lead. Many of the sportsmen's clubs hold regular shoots 

 and put up prizes for the greatest number of Jays, Crows, Hawks and Owls 

 killed. Much has been said and printed against this indiscriminate slaughter, 

 and it is now tabooed. 



Whether the Jay stores up the supply of acorns he carries off in the fall 

 for winter use, or chiefly for the worm which will infest them, is a matter of 

 conjecture. 1 never found his storehouse, and am inclined to think he drops 

 most of them from the tree he carries them to. Occasionally he uses his feet 

 as a means of carrying acorns and almonds in flight. He pilfers from the 

 winter larder of the Flickers and Woodpeckers and runs everything in general 

 to suit himself until he bumps into the Sharp-shinned Hawk {Accipitef 

 velox). Most of his food is obtained from the ground, which he watches from 

 some elevation, but acorns he gathers from the tree tops. He is on the bill- 

 of-fare of the Duck Hawk, and although a bird of short flight often goes sail- 

 ing over the canon where he is captured by a better flying machine than he is. 



RANDOM AND REMINISCENT MAINE BIRD NOTES. 



By W. C. Kendall, U. S. Fish Commission. 



As is too frequently the case with the country boy, my first collecting 

 mania was directed toward bird eggs. At first only one was taken from a 

 nest; later, for exchange, two; finally, the whole lot, and if small the nest 

 also. But as is unfrequently the case, this "bird-nesting" propensity was 

 never wholly outgrown, and it led to the study of the birds and their habits. 

 Fortunately for the birds, in my earlier days I did not know how to prepare 

 their skins for preservation and never have become proficient in the art. But 

 I pride myself in having been instrumental, to some extent, in the preservation 

 of living birds. In the infancy of the Audubon Society, I organized several 

 societies; and, though many of the members have "back-slid", I know of 

 some that have kept their pledges to this day. "Little drops of water, little 

 grains of sand," make mighty aggregates, but my efforts in behalf of the 

 birds are not manifest in the vicinity of my native town. 



My oological zeal reached its high tide between 1878 and 18 SO. Then 

 there was a considerable colony of Terns breeding on the Inner Green Islands 

 of Casco Bay; also "Sand Peeps" and Bank Swallows nested there. To day, 



