I02 



THE OOLOGIST 



raise his liead, gaze about him distractedly, 

 when perceiving his home, would spread 

 his long wings and come back, half run- 

 ning and half flying This performance 

 would be repeated several times in a season, 

 but alwaj's terminated as related. My bird 

 had many quaint, interesting habits and 

 during his short life among us made many 

 friends who will long remember Johnny 

 Pelican. The late Captain Dummitt in- 

 formed me, that upon one occasion, the 

 White Pelicans bred in considerable num- 

 bers on a small island, in the lagoon just 

 south of Mosquito Inlet, but this is unusual 

 and they have never repeated it, the species 

 generally migrating northward in April to 

 nest on the inland waters of the northwest. 

 — From " MaynarcVs Birds of Eastern 

 Nortli, America." 



Black-Capped Chickadee. 



On the 21st of April, 1887, while out 

 collecting birds' eggs, my attention was 

 attracted to a small round hole about four 

 feet from the ground, in an old fence post_ 

 It seemed to have been made recently, and 

 thinking it might belong to some species of 

 Woodpecker or other I approached it and 

 rapped with a stone on the post. What 

 was my surprise at seeing a little Black- 

 Capped Chickadee fly out and light on a 

 tree near by. Thinking that it might con- 

 tain eggs, and, being anxious to secure 

 them, I broke the hole open and to my dis- 

 appointment found that the birds had just 

 began to build. There were a few pieces 

 of dryed grass at the bottom of the hole, 

 and that was all. I was rather vexed, hav- 

 ing already destroyed the nest and besides 

 not having secured any eggs out of it. A 

 thought struck me. I instantly picked up 

 all the pieces that had been torn from the 

 post, i^rocured a tack hammer and some 

 very tine tacks and proceeded to tack on 

 all the pieces as they had been originally. 

 I soon finished this task and went away. 

 On the 29th of the same month I visited 

 the nest and was pleased to see that the 

 Chickadees had taken to their old home 

 again. 1 approached and tore it open once 

 more and fuond two delicate little eggs 



half buried in hair and dried grass. I 

 took these fearing some person would find 

 the nest, as the post was very suspicious. 

 The eggs were white with rosy bluish specks 

 all over, mostly at the larger end. with 

 reddish brown dots. They measure .58x.47. 

 The Black-Capped Chickadee is very 

 abundant at this locality in winter. Most 

 all go away when the warm weather comes. 

 I am unable to tell where they go, but I 

 think they seek some colder climate. They 

 are a very hardy little bird and are also 

 very useful in eating larvae and insects. 

 The number of eggs laid is five to eight, 

 sometimes as many as ten are found in a 

 nest. They construct their nest in hollow 

 fence posts, decayed stumps of trees, and 

 hollow logs. The nest is generally warm 

 and soft, being composed of hair, fur, 

 moss, dry grass and feathers. 



H. H. WlCKHAM, 



Beaver, Pa. 



Notes from Massachusetts. 



On the 8th of June last, while in the 

 woods not far from here, I came suddenly 

 upon a female Ruffed Grouse with eight 

 or ten young. My approach startled her 

 from domestic cares, and imitating a 

 wounded bird she fluttered painfully away 

 in one direction, while her pretty brown 

 chicks scattered in another ; in half a 

 minute there not being one to be found. 

 The parent bird, though keeping out of 

 sight, uttered at intervals a cry closely re- 

 sembling the wail of a child. 



On June 15th, during one of my collect- 

 ing excursions, I discovered a nest of 

 Chestnut-sided Warbler, five and one-half 

 feet from the groimd in the upright fork of 

 a slender maple sapling. The nest was 

 composed of grass, leaves, straws, etc., 

 and contained three young, apparently not 

 long out of the shell, together with one 

 fresh egg of indigo bunting. I should like 

 to ascertain if any other of the Oologist's 

 readers have ever found eggs of the latter 

 in the nests of other birds. It seems, at 

 least to me, a strange occurauce. 



H. C. Oberholser, 

 Shelburne Falls, Mass. 



