87 



THE OOLOGIST 



regarding our old friend Frank Lattin. 

 Yes, Dr. Frank H. Lattin is our Mem- 

 ber of Assembly. He proved himself 

 irresistible. He had been asked to 

 consent to run for Member and the 

 Republican "machine" had been ap- 

 proached, etc., but the machine had 

 their own candidate and refused to 

 book him for the primaries. So Lat- 

 tin bucked the machine and got the 

 nomination from the Republicans and 

 then got the Progressives. Then he 

 started out to get the real vote. You 

 see, the Doctor runs about as well as 

 a bird flying toward the homeland. 



A. M. Eddy." 



We are advised that our friend Lat- 

 tin has been appointed on the follow- 

 ing committees as per the following 

 clipping from an Albion (N. Y.) pa- 

 per: 



Dr. Frank H. Lattin, Member of As- 

 sembly from the Orleans district, has 

 been appointed to a place on the Com- 

 mittee of Agriculture and also on the 

 Committee of Public Health. — Editor. 



HAWKS' NESTS. 



Although during the season of 1916 

 I was unable to locate any nests of 

 the Red-shouldered Hawks which us- 

 ually breed on my old hunting grounds 

 at Stoneham, Mass., I discovered the 

 nests of two other species of the Rap- 

 tores, which well repaid me for the 

 time I had spent in the woods. 



On April 30th, while making a care- 

 ful search along my usual route 

 through the scattered groves on the 

 outskirts of the town, I noticed a fe- 

 male Sparrow Hawk which appeared 

 very tame and rather unwilling to 

 leave the part of the woods where 1 

 first saw her, although I followed her 

 from tree to tree for several minutes 

 as she changed her position to avoid 

 me. I then began to look around for 

 a suitable nesting site, and almost at 

 once I noticed the dead and broken 



trunk of what had once undoubtedly 

 been a tall elm tree, although it is 

 now broken off about twenty feet 

 from the ground. At a height of per- 

 haps ten feet the main trunk separated 

 into two equal branches, each of 

 which contains old Flicker holes. 



A rap on the base of the stub 

 started a Flicker out of a hole in one 

 branch and a male Sparrow Hawk out 

 of a hole in the opposite branch. 



As it was out of the question to 

 reach the nest hole without the aid of 

 climbing irons, I continued my walk, 

 determined to return at a later date. 

 On Sunday morning. May 14th, I again 

 visited the nest. This time I was ac- 

 companied by my old friend, H. A. 

 Jones, of Greenwood, Mass., who is a 

 few years younger and of a decidedly 

 more athletic build than the present 

 writer; so quite naturally I appeal to 

 him when a particularly difficult situ- 

 ation arises. Jones brought his climb- 

 ing irons, two cameras and a very 

 complete array of handy accessories, 

 such as delight the heart of any en- 

 thusiastic nature photographer. The 

 female was on the nest when we ar- 

 rived. Jones quickly found that five 

 eggs, rather pale colored for this spe- 

 cies, were lying on a bed of chips 

 about twelve inches below the en- 

 trance hole. No nest lining was visi- 

 ble, except the chips. The entrance 

 hole was near the top of the stub, just 

 below where the tree had broken off, 

 and in a difficult place to take pic- 

 tures. However, one of the cameras 

 was fastened to a small branch of the 

 only available tree nearby and, al- 

 though the light was unfavorable for 

 photgraphy, several exposures were 

 made as the bird kept returning and 

 clinging to the entrance hole, curious 

 to see if her treasures were still there. 

 I found that if Jones hid in the under- 

 brush and I walked away from the 

 nest, taking a course where the trees 



