72 Bulletin No. iy. 



Sparrow's eggs from the cupola of our barn. There were about eight 

 nests, giving an average of fifteen eggs apiece. How many more they 

 laid during the season I do not know, as they all left the barn. From the 

 same place I took a set of five eggs, three of which were pure creamy 

 white, the fourth and fifth having a few hair-like lines on the large end ; 

 the fifth egg measured 1.25 in length, and was shaped like a double pea- 

 nut. The Sparrows roost by the hundred in the ivy on the house, and I 

 have often killed them by taking a light and then beating the vines with 

 a pole. They fly around the light like moths, and may be easily killed. 



Juncos Night Flying. — When the Juncos first arrive, I have often, 

 when returning home about ten o'clock on dark wet nights, heard them 

 flying from tree to tree and calling to each other. I do not know whether 

 this is usual or not. Have others observed the same thing ? 



An Odd Nesting Place. — Last August I found a nest of House Wrens, 

 T. acdon, in an earthen bottle or jug, which was stuck in a crotch in a 

 holly bush, about five feet up. The hole in the neck was one and one- 

 half inches in diameter and two inches long ; then the body of the jug 

 was five inches in diameter and six inches deep, the nest being placed on 

 the bottom. The nest was a mass of sticks, hair, grass, etc. 



Russell Gray, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Mr. Russell Gray sends the following interesting bit of old literature, 

 which he has copied from "The Family Encyclopedia," published in 

 New York, in 1831. 



Albatross. — A large and voracious water fowl, which inhabits many 

 countries between the tropics. 



Baltimore Oriole. — A bird of North America, which suspends its 

 nest to the horizontal forks of the tulip and poplar trees, formed by the 

 filaments of tough plants ; it is of a pear shape, open at top, with a hole 

 on the side through which the young are fed, etc. [What the bird ?] 

 Some other birds build their nests in like manner, as the Bottle-nested 

 Sparrows, etc. 



Blue Jay. — A bird of a blue color, from six to eight inches in length, 

 the head of which is covered with a tuft of feathers, which it erects at 

 pleasure in the form of a crest. 



Butcher Bird. — A sort of shrike, remarkable for its ferosity towards 

 the little birds, which it kills, and tearing them to pieces, sticks them 

 on thorns. 



Cassowary. — A large bird of prey. 



Hummingbird. — A beautiful bird, the smallest of which are scarcely a 



