but do far more good than harm, and on 

 this account deserve protection." 



In this rollicking bird there are com- 

 bined some of the characteristics of both 

 the crow and the woodpecker, and the 

 flycatcher and the crossbill. Both the 

 male and the female assist in the build- 

 ing of the nest and the male attentively 

 performs his share of the duties of incu- 

 bation. The young are fed hulled pine 

 seeds and. growing rapidly, are soon 

 able to leave the nest. 



The nest of Clarke's Nutcracker is a 

 wonderful structure and is usually con- 

 structed on the following plan : "The 

 nest proper is placed on a platform of 

 drv twigs, mostlv those of the western 



juniper and of the white sage, averaging 

 about three-sixteenths of an inch in thick- 

 ness, and varying from eight inches to p 

 foot in lensrth. These twigs, which also 

 help to form the sides of the nest, are 

 deftly matted together and to the smaller 

 twigs of the limb on which the nest is 

 saddled : they are further held together 

 and bound by coarse strips of the inner 

 bark of the juniper tree: these strips are 

 mixed among the twigs and are very 

 suitable for this purpose. The inner nest 

 is a mass of these same bark strips, only 

 much finer, having been well picked into 

 line fiber : it is quilted together with de- 

 cayed grasses and pine straw, forming a 

 snug and comfortable structure." 



BIRD NOTES FROM NEBRASKA— II. 



April 2?. — Found a dead hawk in the 

 road out in the country. There were 

 no signs of its having been shot. In its 

 throat and partly protruding from its 

 mouth was a partially decayed chicken 

 or bird of some kind. I inferred that 

 the hawk had choked to death in its greed 

 to swallow its prey. 



April 29. — A bittern flew up near me. 

 I had not seen one before. It lit near 

 some trees a long way -from me. With 

 my glass I could see its head and neck, 

 but not its body. They were erect and 

 motionless, like a stick in the ground. 

 After a while I could perceive a very, 

 very slow motion. It was so slow that 

 I would never have noticed it had I not 

 been carefully watching the stick-like 

 appearance. 



April 30. — I found a dead robin in 

 the bushes by the railroad. Some boys 

 told me that a man was hunting there 

 on the preceding day, Sunday, and he 

 had probably killed it. The incident 

 aroused me to write two articles for the 

 local papers about killing birds, and also 

 to give a talk on the subject in the high 

 school. So I think that bird did not die 

 in vain. I have reason to believe that 

 its death saved the lives of manv birds. 



I like the English sparrow. He does 

 not desert us when cold weather comes, 

 but stays right by and is bright, alert, 

 cheerful, happy in all sorts of weather. 

 It is such fun to see them hop along in 

 the street like rubber balls. One day I 

 saw a long straw, some twenty inches 

 in length, flying through the air, but not 

 flying before the wind. It was pulling 

 a tiny sparrow along with it. Or was 

 the sparrow pushing the straw ? On dif- 

 ferent days I saw a female sparrow fol- 

 lowing a robin all over the lawn and 

 keeping a certain distance from it. W "hen 

 the robin flew into a tree the sparrow 

 would follow. When the robin came back 

 the sparrow did likewise. Query : Was 

 the sparrow attached to that robin for 

 his own .sake, or was it for the sake of 

 the worms that the robin found? I did 

 not notice that the robin paid any at- 

 tention to the sparrow. 



The rose-breasted grosbeak was one 

 of the first birds that I identified after I 

 became interested in birds a few years 

 ago. Partly for that reason, and partly 

 because of its beautiful . plumage and 

 beautiful song, it is one of my special 

 favorites among my bird friends. I hard- 

 ly ever fail to see it when I go in the 



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