NATURAL HISTORY. 



141 



passed on the other side of the house. Bun- 

 ny's ears began to go back and forth and 

 he hopped down the steps. 1 frightened 

 the dog away and the rabbit at once re- 

 turned to my call. He knows the members 

 of the family and pays no attention to their 

 goings and comings, but is always on the 

 alert against strangers and dogs. I think 

 he is a hybrid between the wild cotton- 

 tail and some species of tame rabbit. It 

 was not difficult to tame him, but he has 

 inherited the remarkably watchful instinct 

 of the wild cottontail. 



Have any Recreation readers made simi- 

 lar observations? 



D. Lange, St. Paul, Minn. 



THE BITTERN, WOODCOCK AND OSPREY. 

 Many explanations are given of the man- 

 ner in which the bittern, Botaurus centig- 

 inosus, makes his pumping call of "ker- 

 plunk, ker-plunk,'' some claiming he makes 

 it with his foot; others by plunging his 

 head into the water. When out on a small 

 lake one May morning I heard the familiar 

 sound. I searched the reeds with my tele- 

 scope, located the bird, cautiously paddled 

 within 25 yards, focused the 'scope on him 

 and soon he uttered his call. At that short 

 distance a gurgling sound could be heard, 

 •which seemed to begin low in the throat 

 and to ascend. When this sound reached 

 the mouth the neck shot out straight, the 

 bill opened wide, and a loud "ker-plunk" 

 was uttered several times. During this per- 

 formance the bird looked if it were vomit- 

 ing. I watched the bittern nearly an hour, 

 and during that time it swallowed no water. 

 I do not think water in the throat is, as 

 some authorities claim, required for the ut- 

 terance of the call. 



The song of the woodcock, Philohela 

 minor, is not often heard, but is well worth 

 listening to. One evening I was in a little 

 swamp and heard a woodcock uttering his 

 nasal "packe, packe." I aproached as near 

 as possible and waited for him to tower. 

 He soon did so. I could hear his wings 

 swishing as he rose, and as soon as he com- 

 menced to descend he began twittering a 

 low, sweet song, which he continued until 

 within a few feet of the ground. He de- 

 scended near me and began his "packe, 

 packe'' again. I could hear a "quer-r-up" 

 prefacing each "packe." 

 ._ An _ osprey, Pandion haliactus caro- 

 linensis, which I observed fishing, flew 

 slowly over the water near, poised an in- 

 stant, then dropped feet foremost into the 

 water with a loud splash, making the spray 

 fly in all directions. He failed twice, but 

 secured a fish the third time. 



A. B. K., New York City. 



April on a foggy morning and finding a va- 

 riety of birds in the riggings of the ship 

 It is not the habit of small birds to migrate 

 with herons. However, in a fog, which is 

 worse than rain, they become so burdened 

 with weight and exhausted they will alight 

 on anything. No doubt the first birds at- 

 tracted by lights long before daylight hov- 

 ered about until they could see to alight. 

 Nearly all birds when migrating start in the 

 evening. Going North they start across the 

 Gulf always with a gentle North wind, 

 which assists them. Frequently adverse 

 winds 'destroy thousands. While April is 

 the month for all summer birds, our early 

 spring birds cross the Gulf in February and 

 March. Any April night with a breeze 

 from the South the air is full of the dif- 

 ferent calls of warblers, orioles, scarlet 

 tanagers, summer tanagers, etc. The latter 

 are rarely farther North than the middle 

 of Indiana and Illinois. South America is 

 the oriole's winter home. As soon as it 

 has its young reared and all the tame cher- 

 ries are gone one will find orioles where 

 there are wild cherries. Moulting com- 

 mences about July 1st, hence one then hears 

 no song from them. In late August and 

 early September they depart in easy stages 

 until the coast is reached, feed for a few 

 days and cross the Gulf. 



Via Rocks Smith, Oklahoma, O. T. 



PROBABLY A REDPOLL. 



What species of junco is it that wc see 

 picking the seeds from weeds in the fields? 

 They are seen mostly in large flocks. The 

 birds have a pink spot on their throat and 

 upper part of breast, which gradually light- 

 ens into a gray farther down the breast and 

 under the tail, which is quite long. I can 

 generally tell this bird when I see it by the 

 way it runs on the snow. When a flock 

 has settled on a field there is constant 

 squabbling over some choice seed. The 

 English sparrows like to follow the flock 

 about. The snowbirds do not object and 

 appear to be peaceable. 



Clyde L. Williamson, Erstville, N. Y. 



ANSWER. 



The only junco found in New York is 

 the slate colored junco, /. hiemalis. The 

 bird described is probably the redpoll linnet, 

 A cant his linaria. Linn. — Editor. 



In Recreation C. O. Moseley, M.D., of 

 Lytle, Ga., mention crossing the Gulf in 



NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 

 In November Recreation A. C. Thatcher, 

 Urbana, Ohio, inquires if any reader of 

 Recreation knows of rabbits eating flesh. 

 Yes, when flesh is frozen they will eat it. 

 I have seen evidences of this at different 

 times. In Northern Minnesota, in '89, I 

 tried to poison wolves and used rabbits' 

 flesh for bait. Several times there were 

 fresh rabbit tracks to the bait, which was 



