THE OOLOGIST. 



25 



their mournful little cry. They even- 

 tually reached the ground, where the 

 children caught and patted them, 

 placing them time and again in the 

 nearby trees and a lilac bush, where 

 they would stoutly cling and climb as 

 high as they could towards the end of 

 of the limb. They would allow us to 

 approach at any time and stroke their 

 heads, at which they would open their 

 mouths at us as if expecting food. 

 The mother would fearlessly come to 

 feed them while I stood only three feet 

 away, but the father would never come 

 out of the trees. 



At last after several days two of 

 them disappeared, but the third a little 

 male, stayed several days longer. He, 

 a funny little fuzzy miniature of his 

 illustrious father, was still covered 

 with yellow down, as when he left the 

 nest, and would always be seen hop- 

 ping or taking three-yard flights along 

 the ground. One morning while I was 

 eating breakfast, I was startled by the 

 excited calls of birds in our front 

 yard. I rushed out to find the mother 

 Grosbeak flitting excitedly from tree 

 to tree, while at the foot of an oak a 

 Woodpecker was waging war against 

 her offspring. I ran toward them, fir- 

 ing a club at the red-headed rascal 

 as I went, and picking up the poor 

 young adventurer, found he had been 

 severely pecked about the head and 

 mouth by the stout sharp bill of the 

 Woodpecker, who was now exulting 

 over his victory from the top of a 

 neighboring telephone pole. The 

 sides of the young bird's mouth were 

 badly torn and his throat was so filled 

 with blood that he could not peep. 

 After washing his mouth out with 

 warm water and rubbing his wounds 

 with cosmoline, I placed him in the 

 sun on our wide front porch, from 

 which on the following day he followed 

 his mother off into the wide world 

 somewhere, apparently none the worse 

 for his exciting adventure. 



J. L. Sloanaker 



Newton, Iowa. 



Birds Removing Eggs From Nests. 



In the December number of the 

 "Oologist" Mr. Chas. P. Alexander in 

 his interesting article on "The White- 

 rumped Shrike in Eastern New York," 

 mentions finding a "nest containing5 

 half incubated eggs, four which he 

 collected, leaving the fifth as a nest 

 egg to make them lay again but was 

 disappointed as the egg disappeared," 

 also finding another containing 6 eggs 

 four of which he took, leaving, in this 

 instance, 2 eggs as nest eggs. These 

 eggs, disappeared a couple of days 

 later. A friend suggested that the 

 bird ate them. This suggestion is 

 preposterous, and the first instance of 

 birds devouring their eggs that the 

 writer ever heard of. 



The birds simply removed the eggs 

 being chagrined at the spoiliation of 

 their clutches. Mr. A. would have 

 been richer by two nice full sets had 

 he collected them when he first found 

 the nests. Very few species of birds in 

 tne writer's experience will lay more 

 eggs into a nest after the greater part 

 of the clutch has been removed. They 

 invariably desert the nests first, how- 

 ever, removing the remainder of their 

 spoiled clutches. There are some ex- 

 ceptions, however, in which the birds 

 retain their incomplete clutches and 

 brood them and in which they simply 

 abandoned nests and the remaining 

 eggs. 



Here is an instance of bird removing 

 an egg from the nest, the case being 

 however unlike Mr. A's. On May 28, 

 189s, at Torresdale, this county, found 

 a Brown Thrasher's nest situated four 

 feet up in a clump of blackberry briers 

 containing four eggs. As they looked 

 incubated and not caring to spoil four 

 embryo Harporhynchu* rufu* I remov- 

 ed one of the eggs and drilled a small 

 hole in the side to ascertain incubation 

 and was pleased to find it fresh. Re- 

 placing it in the nest, carefully con- 



