December, 1881.] 
AND OOLOGIST. 
79 
the eggs were removed, and I could see no 
good reason why those eggs should not be 
in my. collection. Visiting my patient 
again, I found it convenient to go toward 
evening. Taking one of my collectors 
with me I intimated to him that we were to 
pass by the nest of the Red-headed Wood¬ 
pecker and I hoped he would see the hole 
as we passed, for he might not be able to 
see it when we returned, as it would be dark. 
.Although all the eggs were taken (six) 
the old birds continued to occupy the same 
nest. Since then I have occasionally 
known a pair breeding about here. Last 
year two broods were raised within two 
miles of my office, and I have instructed 
my collectors not to molest them, hoping 
they may yet appear here in numbers.— 
Wyn. Wood, East Windsor hill. Conn. 
Notes from Maryland. 
White-bellied Nuthatch. —For sev¬ 
eral years I mistrusted that this bird bred 
with us, as they are almost as common in 
the spring and summer months as in win¬ 
ter. But this season the matter was placed 
tjeyond a doubt by the finding of the nest on 
May 17th. It was in a hole in the decayed 
>tub of an apple tree in an orchard Tiie 
lole was about seven feet from the ground, 
ind contained four fresh eggs. The bird 
vas on the nest when found. It showed 
10 signs of anger, running quietly up and 
iown the trunk of a tree near by. Is not 
he breeding of this bird as far south as 
his unusual ? 
Robin’s Egg Spotted. —The past sea- 
lOn I saw an egg, which was taken from a 
obin’s nest, that had a few light red specks. 
They were about the size and color of those 
iccasionally found on eggs of Sayornis 
’’uscus, and the distribution was about the 
ame. It was a little larger than average, 
)ut of the usual ground color. 
Bald Eagle. —April 20th, 1880, a pair 
)f Eagles commenced a nest in a large tree 
)n the Potomac River, about nine miles 
vest of this town. I had a man watching 
he nest, and I hoped to get a set of eggs. 
but the female was killed before the nest 
was completed. 
Cow-BiRD.—Has any one noticed that 
upon the advent of a Cow-bird’s egg in a 
nest all the other eggs are mysteriously 
thrown out t I have seen this several 
times this year. One was a Song Spar¬ 
row’s. On the morning that the second 
egg was laid I saw a Cow-bird slip into the 
nest. In a few minutes she came hurrying 
out, and going to the nest I saw that she 
had dropped her egg. The afternoon of 
the same day I again went to the nest and 
found all three eggs broken on the ground 
below. The other was a Chipping Spar¬ 
row’s, with which all went well until the- 
third egg was laid, when a Cow-bird 
dropped her egg in the nest, which was in a 
grape vine, and about ten feet distant was 
an apple tree. The eggs were carried to 
this and dropped to the ground. Two of 
them fell on some grass and were scarcely 
broken These had x shaped holes in 
them, which just fitted the partly open bill of 
a Chipping Sparrow. Could the Chipping 
Sparrows have thrown the eggs out 
Song Sparrows. —This season a pair of 
Song Sparrows built a nest in a honey¬ 
suckle, about twelve feet from the ground, 
against the side of a house. The eggs of 
this nest were destroyed by other birds. 
They then went twenty feet higher up and 
built again. This nest was blown down. 
The next nest was built in a clump of 
honeysuckles, about seven feet from'the 
ground. Here they raised their brood of 
four young.— Edgar A. Small. 
Red-headed Woodpeckers. 
While collecting on the meadows north 
of Hartford, on the 26th of September last, 
I unexpectedly came upon some Red-head¬ 
ed Woodpeckers {Melanerpes erythroceph- 
aliis.) I shot three, two adults and a 
young, tlie latter having only traces of the 
red on the head and neck 'I'he adults had 
not fully recovered from the moult. Dur¬ 
ing the whole morning [ met these birds as 
they moved in short flights leisurely soutli- 
