140 



THE OOLOGIST. 



A Query. 



Editor Oologist: 



Did you ever note or hear of any one 

 else seeing Hummingbirds pierce the 

 sides of blossoms whose corollas were 

 deeper than the birds' bills were long? 



Last May I was living near a house 

 one porch of which was covered with a 

 morning-glory vine laden with huge 

 pink blooms. This vine was a gather- 

 ing place for bees and other insects as 

 well as for several pairs of Phoebes and 

 any number of Hummingbirds. One 

 afternoon, while passing about ten 

 feet from this vine, I was surprised to 

 see a Hummer fly rapidly up to one 

 especially large blossom and drive his 

 bill directly through the side of the 

 corolla, down very near to the envelop- 

 ing leaves of the calyx. At first I 

 thought I had not seen aright but a few 

 moments pause showed me several 

 such operations being performed by 

 many birds. They seemed to plunge 

 their bills in by the very force of their 

 flight, holding themselves in a position 

 perpendicular to the axis of the flower 

 while collecting the minute insects 

 that had crawled into the flower and 

 been unable to escape. 



I examined several of the flowers 

 after the birds had left them and found 

 each one to be neatly split for a dis- 

 tance of an inch or more, instead of 

 having the round hole I had expected 

 to find. To me, at least, this was a 

 new experience, thongh there may be 

 others who have noted the same habit 

 among the Hummers. 



Harry H. Dunn. 

 Los Angeles, Cal., July 25, 1905. 



No! I have never seen an instance 

 of this happening with our Eastern 

 Ruby-throat. We have few flowers of 

 a shape to require such treatment here. 



The trumpet blsssoms are deep but 

 with wide throats which they fly entire- 

 ly into.— Editor. 



White-tailed Hawk. 



On a camping trip this spring while 

 staying at a gentleman's house 

 through a rain I mentioned the fact 

 that I was interested in the eggs of 

 birds and that my companion was 

 gathering a collection of skins. Upon 

 finding this out the gentleman volun- 

 teered to take us to a Hawk's nest and 

 as he stated it, the largest Hawk's nest 

 he had ever seen. In a very thick 

 part of the forest we saw a Sennett 

 White-tailed Hawk circling around 

 which my friend promptly shot as we 

 had never found this Hawk so far 

 north as Oklahoma. On arriving at 

 the nest it proved to be of the same 

 bird and my friend secured the mate 

 and I, after much difficulty, brought 

 the eggs down to terra firma. They 

 were three in number, dull white 

 marked faintly with brown and meas- 

 ured 2.25 x 1.80, 2.23 x 1.79 and 2.24 

 x 1.81. 



URI B. WORCESTER, 



Enid, Oklahoma. 



Five Eggs of Red-tail. 



An unusual set of five eggs of Red- 

 tail Hawk, taken in Kankakee county, 

 111., Apr. 12, 1904, by A. E. Price. Mj. 

 Price says: 



"This wood was examined on April 

 2d, except a small portion and I was 

 within 100 yards of this nest at that 

 time but I first saw it from another 

 grove on the opposite side % mile 

 away on April 12th. Had I found it 

 on the 2d it would probably have con- 

 tained 2 or 3 fresh eggs as the set had 

 been incubated about one week on the 

 12th. And yet some people don't 

 believe in luck." 



We took photo of this set through 

 kindness of Mr. Price, but owing to 

 an unfortu ate selection of background 

 the photo would not make half-tone. 



We specially regret this as one egg 

 was cracked in transit back to Mr. 

 Price's Collection, an accident we 

 greatly regret though he kindly re- 

 frains from a very hard kick.— Editor. 



