26 



THE OOLOGIST. 



I shot the male Thursday, May 24th., and j 

 he is now in the hands of the taxidermist, j 

 I will freely wager that the female pairs ; 

 and builds as usual next spring, and in her : 

 old haunts. The survivers often pair with- ; 

 in a week or two, and from the despatch 

 and facility with which it is done I incline 

 to the belief that the old ones pair with the j 

 young of previous years. I have also no- 

 '" ticed, and farmers liave called my attention 

 to the fact that there appeared to be three | 

 old Hawks to a nest. This, I fancy, goes 

 to strengthen the inbreeding notion ; and it 

 is likely the ou.tsider is a nest-mate of one 

 of the pair, and in the event of one of the 

 twain getting killed, at once takes its place. 

 (In these remarks I do not include, of couse, 

 the Fish Hawks, whose breeding places are 

 respected and the same for generations.) 

 Still Hawks are proverbial for their wari- 

 ness, and in fact I have found six nests this 

 season in which they would not lay, dis- 

 turbed, undoubtedly, by my visits. Even j 

 if the nest is untouched, a twig or limb of 

 the tree would be broken, which Master j 

 Buteo's keen eyes are sure to detect. They 

 are often shot from brush houses by farm- 

 ers, but they soon learn discretion. May ' 

 4th. I took a set of four Broad- winged 

 Hawk's eggs from a swamp maple, put two 

 hen's eggs in the nest, and setting a steel 

 mink-trap over the eggs, went away. Re- 

 turning in an hour, the female was fast by 

 both claws. The trap was re-set, and two j 

 days afterward, the male was found dead in i 

 the steel jaws, with both legs broken and [ 

 plumage soiled. But the female is now i 

 nicely mounted in my study, and the set of I 

 eggs is bevond cavil, fully authenticated, i 



J. M. W. ^ 



Among the most valuable birds I procured 

 were one each of the Ruff (which by the 

 Avay, I have ascertained since is only acci- 

 dental on these coasts, and those seen were 

 further north ; and I regret very much that 

 it with others was spoiled in transporta- 

 tion.). Ivory -billed Woodpecker, Carolina 

 Tit and Wood Ibis, two each of the Bald 

 Eagle and Turkey Vulture, three of the 

 Chuck-will's-widow and eight or ten very 

 rare Warblers. We had been on this is- 

 land about six weeks, and after that visited 

 each of the larger ones, my collection, in 

 the mean time increasing greatly. Mr. 

 McPherson shot a pair of Turtle Doves on 

 the last day of our stay on the island which 

 I prepared, and I can safely say that they 

 are the handsomest and smoothest speci- 

 mens in my collection. 



On the first of July we sailed for home, 

 reaching our destination on the morning of 

 the fourth. Congratulations were exchang- 

 ed, and my newly acquired specimens la- 

 belled and cabineted. 



'09 was my last collecting year. Since 

 then business has rendered it impracticable ; 

 still 1 have not lost my interest in ornithol- 

 ogy, and never will. My annual vacations 

 always tend toward the wildest part of the 

 country, where I can study the birds to the 

 best advantage, and from time to time ac- 

 quire new additions to my cabinet. 



CONCLUDED. 



Btrds' Eggs and Nests. 



Species mentioned in this issue : — 

 Mocking Bird, Wilson's Plover, Quail, 

 California Quail, Frigate Pelican. 



253. Mocking Bird. 



Reminiscences of a Collector. 



BY "OOLOGIST. 



This bird inhabits the Southern States, 

 where it is so abundant as often to be re- 

 garded as an absolute pest to the planters, 

 I and in some districts they employ various 



FOR the next two weeks I visited the means of destroying them. They build in 

 neighboring islands, and succeeded in bushes and low trees, often near houses and 

 obtainingmany very rare specimens of birds nearly always in close proximity to plan- 

 and eggs ; of the former over forty species, tations. The nest is constructed of fine 



