118 
ORNITTIOLOGIST 
[Vol 7-No. 15 
Finches were daily singing in o;ir garden 
on J3roadway. Later, the mating of these 
Finches is a common and interesting phase 
of onr Spring bird-life. In a newly 
ploughed furrow, ■with the brown earth for 
a background, I have seen seven males 
dragging their crimson coats in a circle 
around one bewildered female. At this 
season both sexes have a pretty habit at 
sunrise of soaring vertically a few yards 
above the tree-tops and hovering in the 
rays of the rising sun, in singing ecstasy. 
March 1st. I had a Woodcock for din¬ 
ner, caught by a farmer’s cat. Last year 
I had one under the same conditions, but 
it was not quite so early an arrival. 
Lynch, a farmer on the Poquetannoc road, 
told me that his cat also brought a Wood¬ 
cock into the house alive. Now, here 
appears a new element of destructiveness 
to game birds not commonly taken into 
consideration, and against which it is use¬ 
less to legislate.— J. M. IV., N^on/'ich, Ct. 
Hatching Hawk’s Eggs. 
Friend Wade: Agreeable to yot;r re¬ 
quest. I send you my experience in hatch¬ 
ing eggs of our Rapacia. The result has 
not been very satisfactory thus far, but 
enough so to satisfy me that some of our 
Oologists who are very positive in their 
statements are mistaken (18 to 22 days). 
Mr. R. M. Jerome, of Plum Island, who 
has watched the nests of the Fish Hawk 
for years, says the period of incubation of 
this bird is about twenty-eight days. (See 
Familiar Science for June, 1880). From 
my observations I am satisfied that this is 
the time occupied bv all our Hawks. In 
mv articles published in Familiar Science. 
I stated that I believed twenty-one days 
was the period of incubation of all our 
diurnal birds of prey. This statement I 
made on the assertions of my collectors. 
May 2d. 1870, I put two Red-shouldered 
Hawk's eggs under a hen May 20th. I 
took the eggs and broke theni. exi)ecting 
to find dead birds, as it was several days | 
past the time of incubation given by any 
of our Oologists (27 days), but jhidge of 
my surprise on finding two lively Hawks, 
evidently just ready to hatch. 
In 1880, through the kindness of “ J. M. 
W,” I received eggs of the Barred Owl, 
Cooper’s and Red-shouldered Hawk. The 
Ban-ed Owl’s eggs were so thin-shelled 
that they were broken before two weeks 
had exjiired. On the 2Gth day the hen 
accidentally got shut out from her nest, 
and I did not find it out until the eggs 
were cold. On breaking them, two well 
developed chicks of the Cooper’s Hawk 
were found dead. The Red-shouldered 
egg was addled. The past season, through 
the politeness of IV. AV. Coe, I received 
four eggs of the Marsh Hawk and one of 
the Red-shouldered. On the 30th day I 
examined the eggs and found two chicks 
of the Mar.sh Hawk had cracked the shell, 
but had been unable to extricate them¬ 
selves. The other eggs were addled. 
From the above I am satisfied that the 
period of incubation of our Hawks is from 
twenty-eight to thirty days. I have made 
arrangements the coming season to test the 
matter with an incubator. If those inter¬ 
ested in this subject will send me fresh 
eggs of our Rapacia, I hope to be able to 
settle positively this question.— William 
Wood. East Windsor Hill, Conn. 
Brief Newsy Notes. 
Herons. — On the 4th of August. 1879, 
I saw an adult Little Blue Heron {Honda 
C'ernlea) at Mount Sinai Harbor, L. I., ac¬ 
companied by a flock of eighteen or twenty 
Snowy Heron (Garzetta candidissinia). One 
of the Snowy Herons I secured, which 
proved to be a young male. — A. II. Jlehne, 
Miller s Jdace, X. Y. 
PrRPi.E (r.M.LiNtri.E, {lonomis martinica.) 
k specimen was shot near a small pond in 
Middle Island in the Summer of 1879 by 
Mr. F. Edwards, who still has the bird in 
his possession. — .1. 11. Helme. X. I. 
