June 5, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
891 
lower jaw—have been exhumed, many of them 
in fairly good condition. i\Iany of the skulls 
are well supplied with teeth. The skulls were 
a small portion of the mass of bones thrown 
out. Those best preserved were of adults, al¬ 
though many of children were in good condition. 
I visited the place and found a dozen people 
engaged in excavating. Any person that has an 
implement is allowed to dig as long as he 
chooses. 
The space occupied by the bones is probably 
about six by twenty feet, two feet below the 
surface and four feet deep. It is certain that 
the bodies were not intact when buried, nor 
even any flesh on the bones; nor were they laid 
in any order, but just thrown in pell mell. I 
found a trench that someone had made about 
three feet long, one-half as wide and about the 
same depth, that contained nothing but burned 
bones. With a hooked 
stick I extended the 
trench about a foot and 
the same distance below 
the surface and found 
nothing but burned 
bones. I looked in vain 
for any indication of 
charcoal among the 
bones, but of course it 
had long since decom¬ 
posed. I picked up 
small pieces of skull and 
hollow bones which 
seemed to be stronger 
than the bones not 
burned. 
Dr. A. L. Benedict, of 
Buffalo, who made an 
inspection of the burial 
pit yesterday, thinks it 
safe to estimate that it 
must have contained 
some 300 skeletons, “It 
seems to be clear,” said 
Dr. Benedict, “that the 
skeletons are prehistoric. 
In the first place, there is no trace of any imple¬ 
ment from which we can infer contact with the 
white man; in fact, the only trace of handiwork 
whatsoever is one arrowhead which I did not 
see, but which I understand to have been found 
with the bones. In the second place, the bones 
are in a more advanced state of decomposition 
than those to which we can definitely assign a 
date. It seems safe to assume with some cer¬ 
tainty, therefore, that the bones are of origin 
prior to 1630, and from their appearance I should 
say that they had been under ground some 400 
or 500 years.” 
A Mr. Clark, of Middleport, while excavating, 
showed me two small pieces of earthenware 
that he said he had taken from the pit. They 
were a part of the ornamentation usually found 
on the edge of Indian pottery. IMr. Clark and 
Mr. Macdonald took away in their automobile 
more than a bushel of the bones. I brought 
home what I could put in a large newspaper, 
among them about one-third of a skull better 
preserved than any I saw taken away. 
I have another chapter of bird incidents to 
report. This morning a boy brought me a male 
yellow-billed cuckoo, that he had found dead 
on the corner of the street; from an abrasion 
on the breast it must have flown against the 
telephone or electric light wire. 
This evening Wm. H. Irons, game warden, 
telephoned to ask if I wished a red-headed 
woodpecker in good condition that was killed 
by flying against a trolley car. It proved to be 
a male. The bruise on this specimen was on 
the head. 
This morning my three-year-old grandson 
“Jr.,” was the first person to go into the living 
room, and saw something flying against the 
window. His mother investigated, and found 
a bird trying to get out the window. I suc¬ 
ceeded in catching it; and found it a female 
chimney swift {Chwtura pelagica). It had 
come down the chimney, and as there are a 
number of flues, could not find its way out. 
After showing it to all the children, we 
gathered around an open window and gave it 
its liberty. 
Does a hen ever lay two eggs in one day? 
I have two eggs that you cannot tell apart that 
I saw taken from a hen that was being drawn 
for the Sunday dinner, and I maintain that both 
of those eggs would have been laid that day 
had not the fowl been killed. People have 
often told me that they have had a hen lay 
two eggs in one day. I have always been 
skeptical as to their doing so, but since the 
above occasion, I do not doubt it. 
As I was sealing this letter, the boy, “Jr.,” 
brought to me an olive-backed thrush that he 
had picked up under one of the front windows, 
J. L. Davison. 
Birds in the Hand. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
We had been feeding the birds as usual. The 
midwinter mornings were so mild that we placed 
fragments of hickory nuts on the table and 
opened the nearest window. The chickadees 
and nuthatches forsook their breakfast of fresh 
pork on the veranda for the delicacies within. 
They were rather shy at first, but by degrees 
grew more confident, and after a few days came 
in over the window sill whenever the weather 
permitted us to invite them. 
What “a scrap of valor” is the chickadee! 
One of the birds, in making a hurried exit from 
the room, struck the window near the top and 
slid helplessly down between the upper and lower 
sash. The wife drew the unfortunate out of 
his narrow prison and passed him forth into the 
outer air, but before she released him he uttered 
an angry little cry and tweaked a finger valor- 
ously with his puny bill. 
“I think no virtue goes with size; 
The reason of all cowardice 
Is that men are overgrown. 
And, to be valiant, must come down 
To the titmouse dimension.” 
The nuthatch is alert and nervous. We never 
expected to win his confidence, but the wife 
made friends with him. Sitting by the open 
window one day she held 
out a handful of the 
broken nuts when the 
bird dropped deftly 
down from the veranda 
column, steadied him¬ 
self a moment on the 
tips of her fingers, 
seized a fragment of 
nut and made off with 
it. How the bird man¬ 
aged to pick up a mor¬ 
sel and look his bene¬ 
factress squarely in the 
eye at the same time I 
could not determine. 
He returned again and 
again, repeating the per¬ 
formance. 
This variation in our 
bird-feeding programme 
continued several days 
until the nuthatch met 
with an accident. The 
wife had moved her 
chair back from the 
window when the bird 
came over the sill and darted toward her, with¬ 
in an inch of the coveted nuts. The bird’s cour¬ 
age failed at the last moment. He turned, se¬ 
lected the wrong window by which to make his 
exit, struck the glass and slid down among the 
geraniums and begonias. The nuthatch’s bill is 
formidable and sharper than a mosquito’s. Re¬ 
membering her experience with the chickadee, 
the wife did not go to his assistance, but opened 
the door instead and stepped quietly back out 
of the way. The nuthatch extricated himself 
from the flower pots, flew down to the floor and 
hopped leisurely out of the door as though noth¬ 
ing unusual had happened, but he lost all confi¬ 
dence in us from that hour. 
Although the nuthatches were more reserved 
thereafter, they kept constantly about the house 
and orchard all winter. When the days length¬ 
ened we welcomed the nasal laughter of a happy 
pair frolicking in the dooryard elm. It is a fair 
weather or spring sound. “Ha-ah!” laughed 
one and “Ha-ah!” the other. Forgetting wings, 
they scampered about like squirrels. “Ha?” in¬ 
terrogated a newcomer darting into the tree. 
Then after pausing to wind himself up he went 
off like a laughing machine mechanically—“Ha- 
ha-ha-ha-ha-ha !” 
SCENE ON THE SWEENEY FARM WHEN THE BONES WERE FOUND. 
Photograph by \V. C. Eaton. 
Will W. Christman. 
