THE OOLOGIST. 2^C\^ 



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183 



last season. I can find no incident or 

 authority where more than four were 

 previously recorded. I have taken the 

 eggs of this same pair of birds for the 

 past three seasons and never took over 

 three. 



The set of five were far advanced in 

 incubation, but with the help and 

 patience of our old Oological friend, 

 Mr. H. C. Higgins, of Cincinnatus, N. 

 Y., managed to save them with rather 

 large holes. They are marked very 

 lightlv but are as large as any eggs of 

 .this species that 1 have ever seen. 



W. K. Hatler, Cortland, N. Y. 



Maine winter. One was built in a 

 small pine in woods, the other in a 

 maple tree beside a traveled road. 

 Gut H. Briggs. 

 Livermore, Me. 



Chimney Swifts. 



In the OoLOGiST, March, 1900, page 

 44, appeared a short note on the un- 

 usual nesting of the Chimney Swift. 

 Por the past five summers this pair of 

 Swifts have built their nests and reared 

 their young in this same building, a 

 new nest being built each year, but 

 only a short distance from the one of 

 the preceding year. The nests being 

 built on the perpendicular wall inside 

 a carriage house. The birds going to 

 and from the nest through a small ven- 

 tilator in the side of the building; that 

 it was the same pair of birds 1 am of 

 course not positive, but I think there 

 can be but little doubt. 



Guy H. Briggs, 

 Livermore, Me. 



Twice Used Nests. 



I have never observed any notes in 

 regard to the American Robin using 

 their nests more than one season, but 

 this past season I found two nests con- 

 taining eggs that were built in 1901. 

 Each nest contained a full set of eggs 

 and the parent bird was setting on 

 them. The nests were not relined and 

 contained no lining of any kind; the 

 eggs were laid on the bare mud bottom, 

 and the nests were much the worse for 

 wear, having withstood the storms of a 



The Appearance of the Evening- Gros- 

 beak in Western Ontario in the 

 Winter of 1901-1902. 



There is plenty of interest in the 

 woods even in winter when bird life is 

 at its minimum, and there is ever that 

 delightful uncertainty as to what the 

 next turn may reveal. Thus it was, 

 when one day in January, (the 28th) as 

 I was nearing home, a flock of Kinglets 

 attracted my attention to a little clump 

 of balsams, where they were enjoying 

 themselves in their usual careless and 

 merry fashion. I was thinking merely 

 of the Kinglets, for they were the only 

 bird subjects on hand at the time, 

 though good ones withal, when a move- 

 ment in the bushes, caused by a larger, 

 heavier bird, made me forget the Gold- 

 en-crowns. "A Pine Grosbeak" was 

 my first thought; but no— a moment 

 later up hopped a splendid bird in 

 black and gold and I was introduced to 

 the Evening Grosbeak, an entirely new 

 and entirely welcome visitor from the 

 land of the broad plains and setting 

 sun. 



Scarcely six feet away, he gazed curi- 

 ously at me, his big, yellow bill almost 

 hiding his head, then, satisfied with his 

 inspection, he nipped off a bud, and in 

 true Grosbeak fashion, paid no more 

 attention to me. Soon a dull colored 

 one, probably a female, appeared and 

 the two went quietly on with their sup- 

 per, entirely unmindful of my presence. 

 It was late in the afternoon and these 

 two rare and beautiful strangers among 

 the Canadian evergreens looked to me 

 like two intercepted rays of level light 

 from the declining sun. Ever and anon 

 they seemed to speak to each other in 

 low whispering voices, indescribably 



