64 
ORNITHOLOGIST 
Kingbiki) and Kingfisher. —While I 
was walking along the shore of the Masha- 
paug pond, within the limits of Providence, 
sometime ago, I saw an interesting attack 
upon a Belted Kingfisher {Ceryle alcyon) by 
a Kingbird Tyrannis carolinensis) 
The Kingfisher had poised himself sever¬ 
al times to look for fish, and was'just mov 
ing to do so again as the Kingbird ap¬ 
proached and attacked him. The King¬ 
fisher is not a quarrelsome bird, and always 
minds his own business. He was entirely 
unprepared, and acted as though he could 
not believe that the other had any evil in¬ 
tentions, for he tiied to poise again. The 
second attack seemed to undeceive him, 
and show him his enemy was in earnest. 
He va ilted and turned, vainly endeavoring 
to rid himself of his persecutor. He soon 
saw he could not save himself by flight and 
tried diving. As soon, however, as he ap¬ 
peared at the surface he attempted to fly, 
but the Kingbird, keeping up an incessant 
twittering, forced him to dive again. Two 
or three times this was repeated, both birds 
making considerable noise, until the King¬ 
fisher seemed convinced that escape in that 
direction was impossible, so he sat like a 
duck upon the surface, and as his persecut¬ 
or would swoop at him he would go utider. 
This lasted some little time, until even the 
Kingbird seemed wearied and flew away. 
Then, after waiting a short lime, the King¬ 
fisher flew in the opposite direction.— Fred. 
T. Jencks, Providence, R. /. 
Kentucky Warbler. — My experience 
agrees with that of Mr. Jencks, except that 
my nests were found just where the differ 
ent stalks of a blackberry bush came out 
of the ground, and were supported by them, 
but not fastened to them. I noticed that 
the different eggs of a ^et varied a good 
deal in the color of the markings. In a 
set of three, the first was marked with a 
dark, rich, reddish brown. The third was 
of a neutral tint, while the second was in¬ 
termediate in color. — Edgar A. Small, Ha¬ 
gerstown, Maryland. 
[Vol. 6-No. 8. 
Sparrow-Hawk and Plover. —While 
fishing with a friend at the foot of lake 
Snipsic, near Rockville, Conn., in the au¬ 
tumn of 1875, my attention was attracted 
by a number of Plovers feeding on the 
shore. They were taking their breakfast 
together, skittering back and forth at the 
edge of the water, calling “tweet, tweet.” 
I had just called my friend’s attention to 
them when a Sparrow-Hawk {Tintiunculus 
sparverius) darted from the thick pine 
woods that come to within a few rods of 
the shore. The bird had evidently seen 
the Plovers before leaving the pines, as he 
came direct from the woods to where they 
were feeding. 
The Plovers, seeing their enemy ap¬ 
proach, flew in different directions, one go¬ 
ing directly over the water. The Hawk 
neither hesitated nor turned to the right or 
left, but selecting this one flew after it. 
The birds on the shore sounded their notes 
of alarm, while the pursued gave no cry, 
but seemed to bend all its powers in flight, 
keeping straight ahead but dropping grad¬ 
ually to the w'ater. So swiftly followed the 
Hawk, that at one hundred yards he had 
s'hortened the two rods to two feet, but at 
the very moment he threw forward his tal¬ 
ons to seize it the Plover turned and 
dropped under the water like a pebble that 
had been thrown from above. So close was 
the Hawk that as he swooped away his 
breast almost touched the w'ater. After 
what seemed to be a full minute the Plover 
came to the surface, sat upon the water a 
few minutes, and then flew back to the 
place from where it started. It was ijuickly 
joined by its companions, and all were soon 
as busily and (juietly feeding on the shore 
as if nothing had happened.— Charles A. 
Willis, Rockville, Conn. 
Rare Birds. —Mr. O. E. Lake, of Tops- 
field, Mass., shot a Yellow Rail recently. 
Mr. C. H. Chandler, of Cambridge, shot a 
Curlew Sand piper at Pine Point, Maine, 
during the jiast summer. Mr. Goodale 
pronounces the above birds very rare in the 
localities where taken. 
