THE OOLOGIST. 'i[ {/■ 



39 



An adult male pine grosbeak was 

 caught by a cat December 14th, in the 

 town clerk's yard in Village Corners. 

 A female came into the ash tree at 

 our window on the 15th and for two 

 hours we watched her pranks. The 

 limfos were ice-covered, and the bird 

 would playfully slide down three or 

 four feet, and then, with wings up- 

 raised would nutter back, and coast 

 down hill again. She would strip long 

 wrappers of ice from the twigs, toy 

 with them, and toss them into the 

 air. Now and then she would eat an 

 ash-bud and a bit of ice, and then go 

 back to play. I don't think there was 

 a limb or even a twig on our ash-tree 

 that this jolly bird did not explore. A 

 bunch of eight grosbeaks are in the 

 ash-tree as I write these lines, one 

 showing the light colore 1 under parts 

 and two nicely colored males in tint 

 much like the average purple finch in 

 spring dress. 



When one of our bubos was at large, 

 did I record the fact that we were 

 first notified of the breakaway by all 

 the crows in the English neighbor- 

 hood, charging and harassing it with 

 the well known hue and cry "Caw, 

 caw! Another owl in town. Caw, 

 caw! Lynch him. Lynch him!" There 

 was more to this race war cry which 

 I could not understand. If a farmer 

 had not retaken the worried and tired 

 out fugitive, I think it would have 

 been driven back to the owlery for 

 sanctuary. 



The reason of the race war between 

 the blacks and the larger owls I could 

 never guess. We still feed our owls 

 on raw meat once a day only, always 

 after dark, and they thrive on this 

 diet. They are adult birds now, as- 

 suming fine February feathers, and 

 have feet, heavily winter furred. The 

 nuptial hooting will begin early next 

 month, and by the 20th we hope to see 

 them mate and possible breed in their 

 cage. C. L. R. 



Large Robin Sets. 



Before me is a letter from a South- 

 ern California correspondent asking 

 for several species of eggs from East- 

 ern Massachusetts, among them he 

 asks for a "Robin's set containing five 

 or more eggs." This is not the first 

 reduest for large sets of this species 

 that has come to me; in fact my 

 brother and I average about six of 

 these a year, coming from all over the 

 country and especially from sections 

 where the Robin does not breed or 

 does not occur. 



These large Robin sets seem to be 

 a thing much sought for and also a 

 freak that is comparatively common 

 in collections that I have seen and 

 heard of in parts of the country where 

 the Robin was a non-breeder. These 

 sets have been bought or exchanged 

 from a correspondent, and in most 

 cases they have not paid more than 

 a fifth to one-half more for the set 

 than they would for a set of four 

 eggs. In most cases the owner of 

 such sets seemed rather surprised 

 when I became unusually interested 

 and asked him a good deal about the 

 set, as to who collected it, &c, and 

 would then want to know all about the 

 breeding habits as I found them in 

 Eastern Massachusetts. 



Now most of these sets were cases 

 of orders being filled for exchange, 

 and had been placed some time dur- 

 ing the late summer or winter pre- 

 vious to the breeding season, from 

 people who lived in a section where 

 the Robin did not breed. It was not 

 an exchange between parties who had 

 a personal acquaintance with each 

 other. They were like most exchan- 

 ges, where both people are on their 

 honor to be honest in all details of 

 data, &c, &c. Now it is unusual to 

 find people that are a little loose,, but 

 I am sorry to say that I have found 

 that they exist. 



