THE OOLOGIST ^lO, \^ \7 



158 



Last September I found the bruised 

 body of a Sora Rail on the south 

 side of a tall flag pole. Some tim^e 

 later a Red-headed Woodpecker got 

 mixed up in some high voltage wires 

 and was instantly killed. I was near 

 and heard the crackling sound, and 

 saw the bird drop groundward. T 

 have a Robin and a Baltimore Oriole 

 that struck against ordinary telephone 

 wire and killed themselves. 



Last Month, April, 1917, a friend of 

 mine brought to me for mounting, a 

 Loon of beautiful plumage. He told 

 me that he found this bird alive but 

 paralized under some wires of high 

 tension, near he Lake of the Woods. 

 Evidently it too, like the Woodpecker, 

 had become electrocuted. (I would 

 like to ask someone who knows, if 

 this bird was out of its regular 

 boundaries; it never being noted in 

 this part of the state by me or any 

 one that I have spoken to concerning 

 the same.) 



Sometime ago, a Bob-white flew up 

 ahead of me and dashed against a wire 

 of a barb wire fence with such force 

 that its neck was broken and its skull 

 broken in. 



Observations show that bird acci- 

 dents are on the increase rather than 

 decline. 



' Ralph Donahue. 

 Bonner Springs, Kans. 



Double Crested Cormorant. 

 A. O. U. 120. 

 Members of the Steganapodes seem 

 to be rather rare visitors in Nelson 

 County. I have but one reliable record 

 of any bird of this order being taken 

 here.. On the 30th day of September, 

 1916, a Double-crested Cormorant was 

 taken near Samuels in this county. 

 The collector stated that he saw seven 

 of these birds on the water, and with 

 a double-barrel shot gun fired at them 

 but missed. A second shot brought 



dov/n an immature bird. It measured 

 thirty and one-half inches in length, 

 tail with 12 feathers, back brownish 

 with black margins to feathers; under 

 parts brown and breast white or buff. 

 This Cormorant winters in Southern 

 United States north to Illinois and 

 Virginia, but likely these birds would 

 have passed farther south for the win- 

 ter. A veteran hunter of Bardstown 

 told me of a Cormorant that he had 

 seen here, that was of a bluish color 

 and smaller than the Double-crested 

 Comorant. It undoubtedly was a Mex- 

 ican Cormorant (A.O.U. 121) as that 

 species is said to wander north casual- 

 ly to Illinois. As I did not see this 

 Cormorant, I cannot be positive of its 

 identity. Ben J. Blincoe. 



Bardstown, Ky. 



A Runt. 



Last spring I took a set of chipping 

 sparrow eggs, three of which were the 

 normal size, and one a decided runt. 

 This set measured .87x.51, .86x.50, .86x 

 .48 and .54x.52. 



These eggs as a rule have very lit- 

 tle variation either in color or size. 

 Out of about a hundred nests of these 

 birds that I have examined in the last 

 three years this is the first runt that I 

 have found. 



A. D. Martin. 



Unusual Bird Incidents. 



Abnormally wet May and June have 

 seriously interferred with visits to our 

 woods birds during the nesting sea- 

 son. Busy people who reserve Sun- 

 days to commune with Nature must 

 needs this year to sit in the chimney 

 corner and listen to the patter of the 

 gentle rain drops converting the roads 

 to the timber country into paste un- 

 palatable to rthe "Flivers." 



As I write this Monday morning I 

 hear the voices of three Woods Birds 

 entering my typewriter window (The 

 voices, I mean are entering). 



