April, 1882.] 
AND OOLOGIST. 
Ill 
incubated set. Hold them up to the light, 
brother collectors, and if cloudy pass them 
by. The same ground can be covered next 
year with every prospect of success. 
Not often do we find sets of "VVliippoor- 
mll’s eggs, yet the birds are reasonably 
common, and in some places abundant. 
For instance, while riding in the early 
evening of Saturday, June 4, ’81, through 
Centre Groton, from Poquonnoc to Led- 
yard Centre, a distance of four miles, I 
saw and heard eighteen of these GoaF 
suckers. 
Collectors will do well to take long rides 
or drives on country and surbui-ban roads 
in Winter, while the trees are bare, and 
before snows and the late Winter winds 
have beaten down the nests. He will note 
the nesting-places of many birds, which 
will again be tenanted, and which it will 
••pay” to visit next season. In an after¬ 
noon drive near Norwich lately I marked 
down for future reference the homes of 
three “ Downies” a fine site in white birch 
stubs for chickadees, and in bushy pastures 
by the wayside on cross-roads, nests of In- 
ihgo Bird, Prairie and Chestnut-sided 
Warblers. In three rows of roadside Ma¬ 
ples and Ashes, where last July I supposed 
three or foxir pairs of Goldfinches were 
baffling me, can now be counted twenty 
perfect nests easily got at. Now one can 
work intelligently for them in ’82. On 
one low limb of an elm was an Oriole’s nest 
in fine condition, an ’80 nest well battered, 
and the shreds of the ’79 nest, all within 
three feet of each other. M’ill ’82 add 
the fourth in the series ? Let not the nov¬ 
ice in oology suppose that a collector’s 
field-work is all done in the breeding sea- 
wn.— J. M. IP., Normeh, Conn. 
Snow Bird. —The 2,5th of June, 1878, I 
found a nest of Junco hyemalis in the side 
of a knoll with four eggs, nearly fresh, 
the bird flying off as I approached. I oc- 
•asionally see the black snow bird all Sum- 
naer, but this was their first nest I ever 
found.— A. Tj. Reed. Centre fji.de, JV. I'. 
Brief Newsy Notes. 
Gummed Paper. —Mr C. W. Strumberg, 
Galesburg, Ill., has sent us a specimen of 
gummed paper which he uses to mark eggs. 
It is first punched into a small wafer by a 
cartridge shell, then put over the hole. It 
can then be numbered or lettered, and if 
necessary easily removed by wetting. It 
is often very difficult to remove the num¬ 
bers wdien made on the shell—especially of 
those that have a rough surface. Send ten 
cents for a large sheet. 
Red-headed Woodpeckers have been quite 
common the present Fall about Providence, 
a number of both adults and young being 
taken. Usually we hear of but one or two 
specimens being taken in a year. — F. T. J. 
Mottled Owl. —We have received a fine 
specimen just between the Red and Gray 
Plumage. It came from Barrington, R. I. 
Have had large quantities in past seasons, 
but none not readily attributable to Red 
or Gray.— S. tfc J. 
Red-headed Woodpecker. —On December 
11, I saw an adult specimen, also a Winter 
Wren on the 4th, near Hartford.— II. 2\ G. 
Sea Dove, {Alle niyricans.) November 
30, 1881—I received a fine specimen of 
the Sea Dove killed here on Detroit River, 
by one of our market hunters. It was 
swimming among his Decoy Ducks. It 
proved to be a young female. How it got 
so far from salt-water is a question.— TU. 
II. Collins. Detroit. Mich. 
Cedar Birds and Robins.— A pau of Ce¬ 
dar Birds nested in a tree in the yard of 
Edward Safford of this jilace who took the 
eggs. A few weeks later, on looking into 
the nest it was found to contain a set of 
Robins’ eggs. Was not this unusual?— II. 
li. Kinejsley. Rutland. Yermont. 
Monkey Headed Owl. —These Owls are 
not Barn Owds, as you suppose. Their eyes 
are not larger than a hawks; their faces 
have a queer Monkey like appearance. The 
bill, feet, size and plumage agree quite well 
with the Barn Owl. There is a pair of 
them, and they are quite tame and will eat 
