6.4 
THE NATURALIST AND COLLECTOR 
tected from sig'ht that it requires care¬ 
ful searching to locate one, even after 
the tree has been spotted. 
I remember the first nest of these 
birds that I found or rather helped to 
find. It was on June 29th., 1891, my 
brother and myself were searching in 
a piece of woods, where we had seen 
the birds frequently, when our atten¬ 
tion was attracted by one of them 
alighting on a dead limb overhead. On 
thisibranch was what appeared to be a 
knot grown over with lichens, but 
from the actions of the birds we 
thought it was something of greater 
importance. Nor were we mistaken 
for on closer inspection it proved to be 
a nest containing three eggs of the 
Wood Pewee. How to get them was 
the next question. This seemed to be 
no easy matter for the nest was sit¬ 
uated forty feet up in an oak, on a 
horizontal crotch of a dead limb, at 
least ten feet from the main body of 
the tree. With much planning and 
contriving we evolved a method which 
proved successful. A paste-board box 
lined with cotton was made fast to the 
end of a fish pole and to the extremity 
of another pole was fastened a tea¬ 
spoon. Equipped with this apparatus 
we again proceeded to the tree and as¬ 
cending as far as the nest, arranged 
ourselves amung the branches, so as to 
maintain our equilibrium and yet have 
free use of both hands. By means of 
the fish pole the box was held close be¬ 
side 1 he nest, while in the same man¬ 
ner, with the spoon, the eggs were 
carefully lifted one at a time and 
placed on the cotton; they were then 
hauled in safely. Incubation was 
quite far advanced, but I succeeded in 
blowing them, Two days after I re¬ 
turned intending to collect the nest, 
but where was it? The branch on 
which the nest had formerly rested 
was there but only a small portion of 
the nest remained. Surely no one had 
collected the nest in my absence. 
Just then a Wood Pewee, evidently one 
of the birds whose home had been des¬ 
troyed, darted down to the limb and 
seizing a bit of the remaining vege¬ 
table fibres in its bill flew away with 
it to the woods. The mystery was 
solved. The birds had used the ma¬ 
terial of their old home to construct a 
new one. This was soon discovered, 
in an oak, about four rods from the 
first and similarly placed. Here they 
laid three eggs but a high wind blew 
them from the nest. Nothing daunted 
they again moved the nest, taking it 
apart and carrying it, bit by bit. 
This time they selected a small 
maple about fifteen rods from the sec¬ 
ond site. The nest was placed on a 
horizontal branch about twenty feet up 
and I think they succeeded in rearing 
their young which they had so fully 
earned. 
N. Raymond Reed. 
r} GOLD medal was recently 
J X awarded Herr von Prosch for his 
success in introducing tropical 
birds into German forests Disliking 
to keep his pets in cages, his canaries 
were first liberated in a larg-e room, 
then allowed to pass out and in through 
small windows, always getting their 
food inside. The birds soon began to 
build nests outside and to rear their 
young there. Two pairs of South 
American parrots were next set free, 
and last summer raised a brood of 
young, which with the old birds, 
passed safely through the exception¬ 
ally severe winter. In their wild life, 
the yellow of some of the canaries has 
disappeared, the entire tribe now hav¬ 
ing the green color of canaries in their 
native islands. This new bird colony 
is located in Southeastern Saxony, 
where the average winter temperature 
is about that of New York and St. 
Louis, the summers being more like 
those of Quebec. 
