1881.] Zoology. | 903 
above the horizon in degrees and the two limits of the area of 
observation—that is, how near or how far the birds noted were 
from the glass—it was found, with the aid of Professor C. A. 
Young, that the birds flew at the great elevation of nearly 10,000 
feet, and that the average number of birds passing through the 
field of observation per minute was four and a half. In comment- 
ing on these fact, Mr. J. A. Allen remarks that Mr. Scott’s novel 
and important observations definitely establish several points in 
relation to the migration of birds that have heretofore rested al- 
most wholly on conjecture and probability. ‘We have, first, 
the fact that the nearest birds seen through the telescope must 
have been at least one mile above the earth and may have ranged 
in elevation from one mile to four miles. It has been held that 
birds, when migrating, may fly at a sufficient height to be able to 
distinguish such prominent features of the landscape as coast- 
lines, the principal water-courses, and movntain-chains over a 
wide area. Of this, thanks to Mr. Scott, we now have proof. It, 
therefore, follows that during clear nights birds are not without 
guidance during their long migratory journeys, while the state of 
bewilderment they exhibit during dark nights and thick weather 
becomes explainable on the ground of their inability to discern 
their usual landmarks—points that have been assumed as prob- 
able, but heretofore not actually proven.” 
BRaviNG THE “ Brizzarps.”—On the last day of March I visited 
the Iowa Agricultural College, at Ames, Story county. I walked 
Over from the station and back, and while returning my path lay 
across a little knoll, from which the snow had disappeared, though 
It still covered half the country around. Near the top of this 
Knoll a little bird flew up from the dry grass at my feet. Through 
a “survival” of the old habit of boyhood, of searching for the 
nest on the spot whence a bird rises in this way, I instinctively . 
Stopped and looked, and there, on the ground, was a neat little 
nest, in the bleached prairie grass, containing three small speckled 
€ggs! Great patches of snow and ice lay in all the hollows near 
at hand, while a most terribly cold wind was blowing from the 
north! It was a dreary, bitter day, and March was really going 
Sut like a roaring lion! Really, it did not seem to me that the 
*20w could have disappeared from the knoll more than three or 
four days before. Later still more snow fell, and to-day, as I ° 
_ Write this item, I am ‘snow-bound” seventy miles west of my 
_ home! That little winter snow-bird (Plectrophanes nivalis, as I 
;tPPose) no doubt understands her business, but I should say she 
: ha Set about rearing a family under circumstances of extreme | 
roe difficulty | It would seem that the younglings must perish from 
