THE YOUNG OOLOGIST. 



113 



somewhere between eight and twelve feet 

 from the SiTound, althonoJi I have known 

 eccentric members of the Humming-bird 

 famil}' to construct tiieir downy little 

 homes as high as twenty and even as low 

 as five feet above the ground. In my 

 locality they seem to consider one tree as 

 suitable as another when building their 

 nests ; I have found them in the eucalyptus, 

 live-oak, Cyprus, pine, and various fruit 

 trees. About the best way to discover 

 them is to patiently watch a female bird 

 until she goes to her nest. This requires 

 sharp eyes and not a litle patience, as the 

 bird you have your eyes on may have its 

 nest at a distance, or have none at all. In 

 the protection of their nests they are 

 extremely sagacious, and resort to many 

 devices to prevent them from being dis- 

 covered. I have often seen the female 

 when going to her nest fly with almost 

 lightning rapidity past it, and then as 

 swiftly return and gracefully alight on the 

 nest. They have a curious habit of rising 

 to a great height, and suddenl}^ flying- 

 straight toward the earth at full speed. 

 H. I?. Taylor, 



Alameda, Cal. 



A Daring Hawk. 



While I was sitting in the mounting-room 

 of a taxidermist of this place, an old 

 farmer entered bringing a tine specimen of 

 the Red-.shouldered Hawk; the taxidermist 

 seeing no mark or blood on it, asked the 

 old man how he killed it, this led to an 

 explanation, and the old fellow said, that 

 as he was coming from a pasture back of 

 his barn through a little clump of firs, he 

 saw a Partridge, and picking up a stone, 

 was lucky enough to hit it and kill it, and 

 picked it up and was ,going on toward 

 home when this hawk swooped down and 

 tried to wrest the Partridge from his hand. 

 He was greatly surprised, as any one 

 naturally w'ould be, but clung to his bird 

 and so did the hawk ; he had a rope with a 

 large bull-ring attached, with which he 

 had been leading a cross bull to the bacK 

 pasture, he raised this and struck the hawk 



and stunned him so that he fell to the 

 grovuid, and the old fellow got him and 

 wrung his pretty neck. I will vouch for 

 what he said, as he is a respectable 

 farmei' known by many people in this 

 town, and had no reason to exagerate. 

 J. D. B. 



St. Johnsburv, Vt. 



Snake Eggs. 



Permit me to call 3'our attention to a 

 slight error in the current number of the 

 YotFNG Ooi.OGiST. In "Queries Answered" 

 you stated that snakes produce their young 

 from eggs. This is true of most species, 

 but some species of the genus Entaenca. 

 for example, the common garter snake. 

 {E. Slrtatis), are ovoviviparous. 

 Sincerely, 



C. H. WiLDEK, 



Canandaigua, N. Y. 

 Our answer to the above mentioned query 

 was doubtless rather blind. We did not 

 intend to have it understood from our 

 answer that all snakes lay eggs, for as Mr. 

 W. says, several species of fishes and reptiles 

 are ovoviviparous, and consequently do not 

 laj^ eggs, but nevertheless, as we stated, 

 produce their young from eggs. — [Ed. 



Dove vs. Robin. 



1 do not think it would be amiss if I tell 

 you a funny bird-nesting experience I had 

 in the spring. I was climbing an apple 

 tree in which a pair of turtle doves had 

 built for several years, when a Robin's 

 nest excited my curiosity, and I looked 

 into it and found two Robin's eggs. Seve- 

 i-al days after I visited the same nest <md a 

 turtle dove flew off. I thought it very 

 strange that a dove should take possession 

 of a finished nest, especially if it contained 

 eggs, on looking into the nest, fancy my 

 astonishment on finding two eggs of the 

 dove and two of the Robin. I have since 

 concluded that there must have been a 

 fierce battle for the possession of the neet, 

 and that a dove can't count very well. 

 Geo. p. Elliott, 



Mercer, Pa. 



