42 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



visible (and audible) from my study window, which looks out upon a 

 hedge, some trees and bushes, and a shelf kept well stocked with seeds and 

 bread crumbs, and always supplied with a generous piece of suet. This is 

 my fourth winter, and is notably the best one — not least in contrast with 

 the dull winter of 1917-18. Since I began keeping the shelf supplied on 

 September 18th it is safe to say (in fact it is probably a conservative 

 estimate) that not thirty minutes from sunrise to sunset has passed without 

 some bird appearing for food, and oftener the number is from three to ten 

 than otherwise. At the present writing (January 15th), the following are 

 with me regularly, and have been for many weeks : Jays, Juncos, Chick- 

 adees, White-breasted Nuthatches and Downy Woodpeckers. These appear 

 in numbers. Since November 11a Tutfed Titmouse has hardly moved one 

 hundred yards from the neighborhood of my window, but, so far as I can 

 see, is the only one of his species to be here, and perhaps the only one to 

 be found in northern Illinois. He has been in Lake Forest since April. A 

 pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches are regular visitors at the shelf ; a pair 

 of Cardinal Grosbeaks have been with me since Christmas Day, and 

 occasionally a Brown Creeper takes a few mouthfuls of suet. 



"To go back: The White-throated Sparrows were here until October 

 24th ; and shortly afterwards, with the advent of cold weather, the 

 Grackles and Robins left for the south (October 31st and November 9th 

 respectively, the latter date applying to a lone Robin who lingered beyond 

 the departure of the majority). An occasional White-crowned Sparrow 

 visited the shelf in October, and two flocks of evening Grosbeaks drank 

 from the bird-bath. There have been fewer flocks of these erratic visitors 

 this year than heretofore. On November 12th I picked up the dead body 

 of an American Merganser on the beach of Lake Michigan. On December 

 2nd a companion and I approached within six feet of a Screech Owl (in 

 the gray phase of plumage) who was perched near the bridge that spanned 

 a ravine ; when disturbed he flew silently down into the ravine and perched 

 there till we went on. On the fifth I found a Jay caught in the trap set 

 for rats ; he had evidently tried to eat the cheese ! From the 7th to the 

 20th a single Myrtle Warbler ate from the shelf daily, and on the 23rd 

 (the day before the blizzard) I saw one at Highland Park. 



" Beyond my own observations there may be added the appearance of a 

 Turkey Vulture in November ; and that 'my' Cardinals are one of four 

 (five?) pairs that stay in Lake Forest the year around. This is the second 

 winter that one pair has left the others to live near me, and the two are 

 almost always to be seen eating from the shelf or sitting quietly on the 

 hedge near by." 



Mr. C. W. G. Eifrig of River Forest, one of the Directors of the 

 Illinois Audubon Society, spent three days in November and December 

 scouting in that wonderland of the Chicago region, the Sand Dunes near 

 Gary and Millers, Indiana. He writes of his experiences as follows : "We 

 were surprised and delighted to find on each of the three excursions num- 

 bers of that northern and aristocratic member of the finch and sparrow 

 family, the Evening Grosbeak. The first time we saw eighteen of them. 

 They were busily budding in oak trees. The second time we saw two flocks 

 of twenty-five to thirty each, one again budding, the other hurriedly flying 



