98 



THE YOUNG OOLOGIST. 



generally insects, cnt-worms in abundance; 

 " fruits and berries present, but to a very 

 small extent." 



July — The twenty -four examined showed 

 mainly insects; " berries present to a lim- 

 ited amount." 



August — The twenty-three examined 

 showed chiefly insects, berries and corn. 



September — Eighteen examined. Food, 

 insects, berries, corn and seeds. 



October —Three hundred and seventy- 

 eight were examined. One hundred and 

 eleven of these, taken from the first to the 

 tenth of the month, showed the following 

 results, Thirty, corn and Coleoptera; 

 twenty-seven, corn only; fifteen, grasshop- 

 pers; eleven, corn and seeds; eleven, corn 

 and grasshoppers; seven, Coleoptera; three, 

 Coleoptera and Orthoptera (grasshoppers); 

 three, wheat and Coleoptera; two, wheat 

 and corn; one, wheat; one, Diptera. 



' ' The remaining two hundred and sixty- 

 seven birds were taken from the tenth to 

 the thirty-first of the month, and their 

 food was found to consist almost entirely of 

 corn. " 



I have no doubt that an examination of 

 Kansas birds would show similar results. 

 Hence, we must conclude that it is only 

 when insect food is not abundant that corn 

 becomes the principal diet of the Crow 

 Blackbird. In the first part of the season 

 it is of decided benefit, and even in the item 

 of cut-worms alone saves far more to the 

 farmer than it reclaims in late summer and 

 autumn. — Fi'om The Industrialist, hy Prof. 

 D. E. Lantz, of Kansas State Agricultural 

 College. 



A Singular Duel, 



On page 76 of that recent and most in- 

 teresting popular treatise on "Our Birds in 

 Their Haunts, " by J. H. Langille, appears 

 this statement, among others, descriptive 

 of the Blue-Jay : After noting the consid- 

 erable mimicking power of this bird, and 

 the evident satisfaction he enjoys in teasing 

 other birds with it, seeming to prefer for 

 his victim a small Hawk, the author says : 

 ' ' But this ludicrous farce often terminates 



tragically. The Hawk, singling out one of 

 the most insolent and provoking, sweeps 

 upon him in an unguarded moment and 

 offers him u^ a sacrifice to hunger and 

 resentment." 



In confirmation of the statement here 

 made, I may venture to add the following 

 tragic termination, of which I was an eye- 

 witness : 



It was a cold, raw forenoon in the early 

 winter of 1881; the snow lay some eighteen 

 inches deep and was still falling in occa- 

 sional gusts. While passing through a 

 little thicket of Junipers on the bank of 

 Pleasant River, deep in the virgin forests 

 of Maine, my companion and myself came 

 upon some fresh Porcupine tracKS. 



Here close beside the margin of a little 

 tributary stream to the river was a path as 

 hard and well-worn as a cow-path where 

 these animals had passed and repassed with 

 their heavy plantigrade tread. Yonder is 

 one of the junipers with its bark well-nigh 

 eaten away by the same animal. 



These incisor marks of the Hedgehog are 

 an accurate indicator of the depth of the 

 snow, a sort of self -registering depth meas- 

 urer, by means^of whose records one may 

 tell, even in the heat of summer, just how 

 deep the snow has lain when the chilly 

 blasts of winter drove it in white clouds to 

 gather behind some sheltering knoll. 



They tell us, J;oo, on what these hardy 

 animals feed when all else lies buried deep 

 beneath December's white mantle. 



Suddenly the winter's silence is broken 

 by an imearthly sound; no ! not a sound, 

 but a medley of sounds all pitched on the 

 same discordant key. 



Having never been fortunate enough to 

 hear the far-famed "cry" of a wounded 

 Hedgehog, I at once imagined that I was 

 at last listening to it and that the noise pro- 

 ceeded from two males of that species in 

 deadly combat. 



But on carefully approaching a dense 

 clump of the junipers whence the sound 

 proceeded, what was my surprise to behold, 

 instead of the two animals of my imagina- 

 tion, only a Blue-Jay and a Sharp-shinned 

 Hawk. 



