52 



THE ATLANTIC SLOPE NATURALIST. 



once in a while he makes his rush 

 straight at you. Quick work then 

 does it. 



Flicking is pretty fine work. Very 

 few white men ever learn to do it 

 right. A white rag must be flicked 

 in exact imitation of the motion of 

 that other tail. The upward whisk 

 with a sort of flutter "before the slower 

 downward drop must be perfectly true 

 to life, or your buck grows suspicious, 

 instead of curious, and dances round 

 you till he gets your wind, and then 

 it's good-bye. Sundown generally 

 caught us toting our game to camp. 

 Tired and happy, Jim polished up the 

 "baby," while I put away my speci- 

 mens, and some of the boys skinned 

 and "briled" by the fire, doing a lit- 

 tle grumbling sometimes, because 

 "granpa" was so late. Being the 

 only old man , in the outfit I was 

 "granpa'' to the whole camp, and I 

 question if half of them will ever 

 know me by any other name. 



Lincoln's Sparrow in "Western New 



York. 



By Ernest H. Short, Rochester, N. Y. 



For many years I have kept a close 

 watch for this bird during the breed- 

 ing season, as I have suspected that, 

 like the hermit and olive-backed 

 thrushes, the Connecticut and mourn- 

 ing warblers, etc., they might be in- 

 duced by the 70-mile flight across Lake 

 Ontario, to breed on the south shore 

 of the lake, though a little south of 

 their normal range. 



On the 30th of May, this year, I 

 flushed a bird from the base of a bush 

 growing in a second growth woods, or 

 "slashing" near the banks of Big 

 Black Creek, in this county, (Mon- 

 roe), which I supposed was a song 

 sparrow, until I examined the four 

 eggs in the nest. The eggs were so 

 small that I sat down a short distance 

 away and awaited the return of the 

 bird. She soon came skulking back 

 and after much patient effort, I suc- 

 ceeded in getting her off the ground 



into a small sapling, and in plain 

 view. I knew I had added finally 

 another bird to the list of breeders in 

 Western New York as the one before 

 me was unmistakably Lincoln's spar- 

 row. The eggs are like heavily 

 marked eggs of the song sparrow, but 

 very small, and more rounded in 

 shape. 



Inside of ten minutes I found an- 

 other nest in a low clump of briers 

 nearby, on which the bird sat, while 

 I parted the vines and stood within 

 two feet of her. She allowed me to 

 examine her closely and was reluctant 

 to leave when I finally flushed her. 

 The nest contained two eggs, and one 

 of cowbird. Both of the sparrows are 

 abnormal. One is like the eggs in the 

 set of four, but is a runt in size. The 

 other is normal in size, but markings 

 are fine and it has a wide green band 

 encircling the centre. 



They were partly incubated indicat- 

 ing a complete set. 



The set of four, I believe to be typ- 

 ical, as it is an exact copy of a Michi- 

 gan set of five eggs I had been hold- 

 ing until I could feel certain of iden- 

 tity. Should the rounded shape prove 

 to be fairly constant in the eggs of 

 this bird, it would, in connection with 

 the small size, be a great assistance in 

 identifying the eggs of the smaller 

 sparrows. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



WASHINGTON MATTHEWS, M. D., LL.D,, 



ON THE ALLEDGED SMOKING 



OF RED-WILLOW BARK. 



Hawthorne Inn, Gloucester, Mass., 

 July 18th, 1908. 

 Dr. W. E. Rotzell, Editor Atlantic 



Slope Naturalist, 



Dear Sir : I have had my attention 

 called recently to an article in The 

 Atlantic Slope Naturalist, Vol. I., 

 No. 3., entitled "The Smoking of Red 

 Willow Bark by the American Abori- 

 gines. ' ' I have not seen the article 

 in No. 2, to which you refer in No. 3; 

 but I conclude that it must have been 



