326 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 


place in the United States of its size. Entomologists and botanists make — 
the same statement in regard to their respective specialities. The shores — 
from here to the extreme eastern end of the island are mostly protected — 
from the ocean by sand-bars and islands, leaving large bays and salt- 
meadows, which are a favorite haunts of thousands of aquatic al — 
rapacious birds. Many s have been shot here this winter that are 
generally considered as = rare, such as the Labrador duck, the Hane 
quin duck, the Goss-hawk, and a few others not often seen. On the — 
‘shores of Coney Island we sametimės find, about fe months of February 
and March, immense quantities of Mactra solidissima and Natiea heros. 
ba March the beach was sia for miles with these shells, €s : 
the former, which was heaped up in beds two or three feet thick.—A.R 
Y., Brooklyn. j 
THE Crow BLACKBIRD A ROBBER. — Three years ago this spring there 
came into our village a flock of a dozen or more of the common Crow 
Blackbird (which are plenty in esè ountry above here) fo the purpost 
of b neg their ne ests in the tall rot ae poplars in our streets, aul 
an fly. Until this season they have ma iiile their nests only in the ; 
bilich places near the trunk, where the clusters of nearly upright limbs ' 
secure them from ordi rity observation. This spring they have appeared 
in greater numbers; two pairs have built their nests inside the spire of 
church, passing through yia openings of an ornamen nted window bighup 
above the tops of our tallest trees. A bell is in the tower of the st i 
below, and is rung at customary times, and a colony of doves is'in oe 
tion near the bell. The writer has just discovered iat the Blackbl 
taken possession of a martin-house in his garden. They are pasa ; 
carrying in materials for nests. and the martins are flying 2° AN 
about. Also, in the top of the pyramidal trellis covered with par 
ing the lower half of the support of the martin-house, a pair at? 
I 
instead of driving them off, a new martin-house is to be put up at ‘a 
near by, which the martins, in their necessity, will no dou spin! and : 
Blackbirds are tame about our streets and gardens, pee Gee he gromi 
at the same time with the robins, with much the same habits re mos 
spect, ee evidently going beyond the limits of ‘the village © 
of their food. 
We have robins in large numbers, —small birds being bere 
re was 
law,—and on the arrival of the blackbirds the first seas pe heard 
could 
unoccupied. robin’s nest they could find. But, singularly eno ih 
blackbirds soon succumbed, and the robins drove them away in r dat 
of gma but they seem to live in harmony, and, as I have ‘Ne NE 
company on the ground seeking for food. —F. Wao M ' 

