February, 1882.] 
91 
AND OOLOGIST. 
fertile? Was not the male in constant at¬ 
tendance, as has been said, dashing into my 
very eyes while the more discreet female 
chattered in unison from the next tree 
The added eggs “not typical ?’’ Suppose I 
had been content with five eggs, and in ten 
days another collector came along and got 
a second clutch of five, and in ten more 
days still another collector got the third 
set of five. Now with no knowledg of pre¬ 
vious eggs would not collectors numbers ' 
two and three stoutly maintain that their ! 
sets were “typical?” And how many 
hundreds of sets of eggs in collections 
generally to-day could not be challenged 
by this standard, and with this view would 
cease to be types. Let my scientific friend 
choose his set of dull nest-worn eggs, and 
leave me my bright specimens taken the 
morning they are laid with the splashes of 
brilliant color untarnished and unfading. 
Two sets of Sharp Shinned Hawk’s eggs 
I’ve missed, because when breeding the 
quartet of birds fell easy victims to the 
guns of farmers’ boys. There’s a good 
deal of mock heroics written about the till¬ 
er of the soil. I know of no more indis¬ 
criminate and bloodthirsty being than the 
average farmer with a gun in his hands. 
He shoots Kingbirds because they “live on 
his bees, and shoots Brown Thrushes and 
twenty Blackbirds at a shot because they 
‘ are worse than Crows ”—which last by the 
way do him no end of good. He glories 
in killing Screech Owls, which never looked 
at a chicken and which destroy forty mice 
to one taken by the sleek feline thief and 
bird-catcher on his hearth; he will upon 
occasion wring the necks of young Marsh 
Hawks and shoot away at the old harriers 
when in the very act of mousing for mead¬ 
ow moles, and to crown all he relentlessly 
murders the little Sharp Shinned which 
is nt so big as one of the inmates of his 
dove-cote. But to the farmer an Owl is an 
Owl and a Hawk is a Hawk. In the rigors 
of winter he puts poisoned offal in the fields 
killing Crows and Hawks by wholesale. I 
have actually seen three dead Fish Hawks 
nailed on the side of an intelligent (?) farm¬ 
er’s barn as a warning to poultry thieves. 
So again I say, alas and alas brother collect¬ 
ors, if he happens upon a nest of the sub¬ 
ject of this sketch. Both male and female 
are instantly riddled with shot big enough 
to kill a giizzly bear; with a long pole the 
nest and its treasures are thrown to the 
ground, and the valorous farmer trudges 
home with his muzzle-loader proudly con¬ 
scious of having protected himself and his 
property from “them cussed Hawks.”— 
J. M. IF., N'onvic/i, Conn. 
---- 
Notes From Saratoga. 
Has a list of the birds imposed upon by 
the Cow-bird ever been made ? Here is 
my experience: Chipping Sparrow, Cedar- 
bird, Red-eyed Vireo, Yellovv Warbler, In¬ 
digo Bird, Robin, Shore Lark, Oven Birds. 
Found three in a Vireo’s nest. Speaking of 
large sets, I have found seven eggs in B. Ori¬ 
oles’and six in the King-birds’ nests. Bit¬ 
terns do not nest in communities here. 
Nests are raised above ground on rushes. 
Does Least Bittern come as far north as 43°? 
A nest and four eggs of Canada Fly¬ 
catcher was taken here in 1878. Bird shot. 
Of a set of four Maryland Yellow-throat’s 
eggs two are without spots and two normal. 
Have found Olive-backed Thrushes breed¬ 
ing 100 miles north; nestsvery compact and 
about five feet from the ground near water. 
Of all queer nesting places the following 
takes the palm. A ne.st of Song Sparrow 
in a horse 3 skull, half buried in the sand. 
It was a very convenient house I assure 
you. I have had some experience with 
Kingfishers’ nests. They generally build 
near the top of a gully near here, and by 
measuring in and digging from above save 
much labor. The bird is often buried. 
Is not a Field Sparrow’s nest over six feet 
from the ground unusually high. I have seen 
One as high; nest was very thin, eggs being 
seen from below. A Forster’s Tern was shot 
here on September nth, 1880. A Short¬ 
tailed Tern on October 8th, 1881. A Red- 
backed Sand-piper on October 8th .—Guy 
C. Rich. 
