152 



THE OOLOGIST t'\(i'^^ 



growth of the young. The herons also 

 regurgitate the food, as do the kingfish- 

 ers, swifts, woodpeckers and others to 

 my knowledge. I should not be sur- 

 prised to learn that the hawks and owls 

 fed the very young in this manner. It 

 is well known that the hummers follow 

 this method of feeding for a good long 

 period: longer than with any other 

 species excepting the pigeons. 



Generally after two to five days of 

 this early form of feeding, the insect 

 eating birds begin to cut up the food 

 that is brought to the nest. I have 

 watched the robin disintegrate a worm 

 before flying to its nest of young, and 

 have then seen him .stand on the edge 

 of the nest and hand out the bits piece- 

 meal to the little gaping mouths. When 

 the young birds are small it takes a 

 much longer time to feed the brood 

 than it does when the birds are larger. 

 I have seen a robin spend all o* live 

 minutes in portioning out the supplies, 

 and a chimney swift not rarely takes all 

 of twelve minutes to feed her five 

 young. But when the robins are near- 

 ly full size and about to leave the nest, 

 the time for feeding is short and often. 

 It is not rare to see an old bird fly to 

 the nest, hand out one or two big chunks 

 and away inside of twenty seconds. 



The smaller birds do not litter the 

 nest with provender in any case that I 

 can find, but the larger birds are more 

 given to this habit of provision. I have 

 found nests of young hawks and owls 

 brimming over with captured prey, 

 which the old birds had provided in ad- 

 vance for the growing fledgling. In a 

 Great-horned Owl's nest it is not unusual 

 to find a wild rabbit, or hare as some 

 call it; also remains of the grouse and 

 other birds. In the nests of the buzzard 

 hawks it is not unusual to find remains 

 of small snakes, while about the nests 

 marsh-hawks we can see gophers and 

 small rodents. The butcherbird, White- 

 rumped Shrike is given to hanging its 

 prey abbut the nest, but this habit is 



not as extensive as is generally written 

 of, and many cases of nesting of the 

 shrike occur without this habit being: 

 observed . 



Morris Gibbs. 



Field Notes From Manitoba- 



The season of 1902 that has just 

 passed, proved to be a poor season for 

 field collecting. The heavy rains of 

 the spring made the more secluded 

 parts of my collecting grounds inac- 

 cessible. While the draining of the big 

 Boyne Marsh is driving the water birds 

 and consequently those birds that prey 

 on them from the district. 



Owing to the floods the resort of the 

 Loon was inaccessible and I have no 

 further notes on these birds fr. m this 

 season. But can record the finding of 

 the nest of the Maryland Yellow-throat 

 to me a new species. While driving 

 through thfi long grass and heavy weed 

 growth which abounds at Elm-point, I 

 flushed a small bird from her nest; a 

 quick stop was made and after a care- 

 ful search on both sides of the buggy 

 without success, I hunted through the 

 grass beneath the rig and there found 

 the nest very carefully concealed 

 among the herbsge and close to the 

 ground, neatly made of bent stalks and 

 dead grass, lined with a little horse 

 hair and laying in the cup which was 

 deep enough to make them safe, were 

 five pretty pinkish white eggs speckled 

 with reddish brown and black. These 

 birds are fairly numerous htre, but this 

 is the only nest I have ever found. 

 Chris P. Forge, 

 Carman, Man. 



Late Nestsng. 



On the 20th of August, a friend 

 brought me a set of 5 Sora Rails taken 

 on the 15th. The nest was found while 

 mowing grass, and the eggs proved to 

 be almost fresh. 



Chris. P. Forge, 

 Carman, Man. 



