November, 1881.1 AND OOLOGIST. 69 
the past two seasons. The most indifferent 
people would stop and listen to him. 
The school boys would stop and try hard 
to imitate him, and some with good success. 
One bright little girl said to another, “ I 
know what he says ” “Why, what is it ?” 
“ Tve lost my pencil at school; I’ve lost 
my pencil at school.” “Yes, but there is 
something else,” the other one replied. 
“Oh, yes, I know: ‘Teacher, I’ve lost my 
pencil at school; teacher. I’ve lost my pen¬ 
cil at school.’” And that perfectly de- ? 
scribes his leading note when properly sung. 
He shed his feathers during July and Au¬ 
gust, 1880, when his song ceased until the 
spring of 1881. He again moulted in No¬ 
vember and December, 1880, and com¬ 
menced to sing on January ist, i88i, gain¬ 
ing in volume until the arrival of his kin¬ 
dred in the spring, when his song was in¬ 
cessant, and had it not been so full of sweet¬ 
ness would have been unbearable As it 
was, hardly a person passed the house that 
did not stop, and very many made bold to 
introduce themselves to inquire about that 
wonderful bird. And yet it was but a 
Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a native of our 
New England woods. 
This summer Jack moulted in June and 
July, and continued to sing until the pres¬ 
ent time, October 2d, but his full, sweet 
notes are only sung during the breeding 
season. At other times he occasionally 
breaks out in full song,' but more fre¬ 
quently imitates the Canary or Indigo birds. 
He will answer at any hour of the night 
if spoken to by the lady who cares for him. 
He will play hide and seek with her as well 
as a school girl could. When the first fruits 
of the season are given him it is laughable 
to see his rediculous antics. If we were 
capable of describing Jack’s life history, our 
readers would hardly credit it. But then we 
must remember that no baby was ever bet¬ 
ter cared for than Jack. He gets a little of 
everything, and no human being could bet¬ 
ter know when griddle cakes are being pre¬ 
pared than does Jack, and for three years 
he has never been forgotten. 
Osprey Eagle—Inland. 
During the month of September the Os¬ 
prey seems to entirely desert its breeding 
haunts and ascends the various rivers, even 
to their head waters, where the streams 
are both narrow and shallow, and here also 
they seem to pursue a different method of 
securing their prey. Mr. Freeman, agent 
of the Totoket, Cotton Mills, at Occum, 
Conn., while looking out of an upper win¬ 
dow of the mill, observed an Osprey Eagle 
settle down on the shallow water and with 
its claws extended, without diving, secure 
a fish of good s'ze and fly over the meadow. 
The fish struggled so hard that the Osprey 
let it drop, and immediately descended and 
with extended claws picked it up without 
alighting, and again flying to a great height 
let it drop, and once more picked it up in 
the same way. The second time it was 
picked up the fish ceased to struggle, when 
the Osprey sailed off to the woods to make 
a quiet meal off his victim. Mr Freeman 
had a good view of the bird’s movements, 
and is of the opinion that the fish was a 
pickerel, and was let drop on the meadow 
designedly by the Eagle to kill it, as it 
could plainly be seen to struggle both in 
the talo'is of the bird, and while on the 
meadow the first time it was dropped 
This is not an isolated case for Mr. Free¬ 
man had once before seen an Osprey take 
a fish in the same way and drop it on the 
meadow and descend and pick it up in the 
manner described above. 
Arrivals. —Chas. W. Gunn, Grand Rap¬ 
ids, Michigan, reports the arrival at that 
place of a flock of Titlarks on October i8th. 
A Snowy Owl was brought to Mr. Gunn 
on the same date by Mr. O. Dennis. Mr. 
Gunn also states that “ the earliest previ¬ 
ous date of arrival for this Owl, for Kent 
County, during a period of eight years, is 
November 5th, 1880.” ^ 
The Ornithologist and Oologist is 
waiting to be taken by about twenty five 
more subscribers fqr 1881. 
