THE OOLOGIST. 



37 



More About the Great Northern 

 Shrike. 



HTHE following letter from Mexico, N. Y. 

 -*- we take the liberty of publishing en- 

 tire : — 



In the February number of The Oolo- 

 GIST I noticed an article on the "nesting 

 of the Great Northern Shrike in this State" 

 at the close of which you requested collect- 

 ors to furnish any information on the sub- 

 ject which came into their possession. Since 

 that time, facts have come under my ob- 

 servation, Avhich, I think, fully substantiate 

 the statement made, viz : that the North- 

 ern Shrike breeds in this State, and partic- 

 ularly in the northern counties. In the 

 month of June, on the 7th inst., I had 

 brought to me a young male of the Great 

 Northern Shrike {Collurio borealis). It 

 was shot about three miles from this vil- 

 lage, and not far from Lake Ontario. I 

 was told by the person who procured the 

 specimen, that a pair of Shrikes, or Butch- 

 er Birds as he called them, had nested, and 

 raised a brood of young near his house, and 

 that the bird he had shot was one of the 

 young. He afterward brought me one of 

 the parent birds? and another of the young. 

 The young were hatched about the first of 

 May, and when brought to me, were com- 

 pletely feathered, the tail, of course not 

 having attained its full length. T\iQ per- 

 son furnishing tliis information is in every 

 way reliable, and I think the case is au- 

 thentic. I have observed the Northern 

 Shrike here in January, and have noticed 

 that it generally became more abundant 

 from that time to April, and although I 

 have never discovered a nest, 1 do not doubt 

 'that several will yet be found in this and 

 other sections. I hope the facts given a- 

 bove, may throw some light upon the sub- 

 ject, and that more may be learned of its 

 breeding place or places. 



John A. Severance. 



The Nesting of the Wood Pewee. — 



Almost every person who lives in wooded 

 districts is acquainted with the Wood Pe- 

 wee ; but to find its nest is a pretty diflRcult 

 matter, and unless seen when building, or 

 while the parent birds are taking care of 

 the young they are not often found. A 

 question on which many ornithologists dif- 

 fer, is whether th'" bird raises two broods 

 of young the same year ; if so are they 

 raised in the same nest? 



A young collector near Brookville, Ind- 

 iana, during the past summer closely ob- 

 served a pair of Wood Pewees that had a 

 nest near his house, and he says they raised 

 two broods of young, one about the first of 

 June and the last about the latter part of 

 July. They were both raised in the same 

 nest. He says, taking tliis fact in connec- 

 tion with other observations, he believes the 

 Wood Pewee regularly raises two broods 

 of young each year. 



Now let us hear the result of the obser- 

 vations of other collectors on this point. 



OOLOGIST. 



Several excellent articles on oology are 

 forthcomino'. 



Identification of Eggs. — Too many 

 of our young collectors ignore the import- 

 ance of thorough authentication of birds' 

 eggs. The fact is, most of the rarer kinds 

 cannot be named imless the parent bird has 

 been seen or taken, and while in the field 

 the excitement involved in hunting for birds' 

 nests tends to diminish one's care on this 

 point. In this relation too much cannot be 

 written, nor too much care taken. Dr. 

 Coues says : " As the science of oology has 

 not progressed to the point of determining 

 from the nests and eggs, to what bird they 

 belong, in even a majority of cases, the ut- 

 most care in the authentication is indispen- 

 sable. To be worth anything, not to be 

 worse than worthless in fact, an egg must 

 be identified beyond question ; must be not 

 only unsuspected, but above suspicion." 

 Finding a Song Sparrow's egg somewhat 

 differently marked and proportioned from 

 the typical egg, might lead an amateur col- 

 lector to believe it to be that of a very diff- 

 erent species unless the bird be seen. 



