﻿106 FIELD AND FOREST. 



Many trees along the streets were in a similar condition, more or 

 less, but I noticed no others that bloomed. Some of the apple trees 

 jn the country, bore a second crop of fruit. — S. S. R. 



Unusual Accidents to Birds. — I shot a Chordeiles popetue a 

 a few weeks ago the victim of rather an unusual accident. It had swal- 

 lowed a large Lachnostcrna, probably mistaking it for something 

 more tender, when he caught it. Certain it is the weak aesophagus of 

 the bird had to yield to the muscular legs of the beetle, and not the 

 aesophagus alone, but the skin also ; he did not succeed in wholly ex- 

 tricating himself however, and died sticking fast to the aesophagus at 

 one end and having his head and first pair of legs outside the skin. 

 The insect was firmly imbeded in the membranes, and must have been 

 there some time. 



I have seen pigeons with a considerable branch dangling beneath 

 them. I have one specimen with a beach twig about nine inches long, 

 that had entered the bird from beneath and pierced the femural mus- 

 cles, projecting about four inches on the back : It had undoubtedly 

 falling from the nest when a "squab" and been impaled on a twig. 

 It was an old bird and the stick was much worn, it must have been 

 very unpleasant in walking. — A. J. Kumlein. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Life Histories of the Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania. By 

 Thomas G. Gentry. Vol. I. [16 mo. pp. 400.] Philadelphia, 

 1876. Published by the Author. Price $2.00. 



An exceedingly entertaining volume filled with substantial facts, re- 

 garding the habits of Birds, with full and concise descriptions of their 

 nests, eggs and young, their "bill of fare," the songs they sing — as 

 nearly as the alphabet can express them — and, in short, the many little 

 details of hird- biography, so often slighted in works of this character, 

 that make it a valuable reference book to the ornithologist, and to the 

 general reader a source of pleasure and profit. 



It shows the author to be a true lover of nature, as well as a minute 

 observer, and the labor he has bestowed upon the work, though, doubt- 

 less, in one sense, a labor of love, should bring him a handsome re- 

 muneration. The second volume is soon to follow, and, we doubt not, 

 will be as well received as the first. 



