FOREST AND STREAM. 
SIX YOUNG COYOTES. 
Dug out of their burrow on a California grain ranch by Wm R. Carman, of Fresno, Cal., who photographed 
As the picture shows, the puppies’ eyes were not open when they were found. 
them. 
from one or more centers. It seems reasonable 
to believe they may have existed _ in scattered 
groups where cliffs as nesting sites were at 
hand; and as settlements extended, and the eaves 
of buildings proved as good sites as the original 
cliffs, these swallows extended their own range. 
At the present day these birds occur very sporadi¬ 
cally in certain communities without a nest, while 
others seem to be particularly favored by these 
birds. 
The white-bellied swallow ( T achy cine t a bi- 
color Vieill.) is very rarely found nesting in 
hollow trees, in central Massachusetts, as it did 
in the earlier days when such trees were plenti¬ 
ful. I remember only one such great tree by the 
Maanixit River at Oxford, Mass., in which a 
colony of these swallows nested. These last 
remnants of an older forest are gone, and the 
only alternative for the swallows is to accept 
our bird boxes. This they do very promptly,, as 
if they were aware of the scarcity of nesting 
sites their instincts prescribe. 
These are but a handful of instances of how 
birds adapt themselves to changed conditions. 
It appears that every response is in a direction 
least opposed to the instinctive impulses of the 
species. It would seem to be as easy for the 
bird to do away with certain structures as to 
drop certain instincts, thus the essential charac¬ 
teristics of old habits and associations in the 
nesting sites, the form, and nature of the nest¬ 
ing material remain the same.. 
Another class of peculiar individual traits is 
often noted among the birds, in their choice of 
nesting sites and building material—idiosyn- 
cracies which cannot well be explained as re¬ 
sponses to the necessities of certain conditions, 
or the demands of deep-seated instincts char¬ 
acteristic of the class. Why should the common 
chipping sparrow choose an old robin’s nest in 
which to build, as Burroughs once found? 
Many of our reputable observers and ornithol¬ 
ogists record cases where birds have chosen 
other birds’ nests as nesting sites for themelves. 
This is oftentimes done by force, or an old nest 
of previous years is taken advantage of. Alex. 
Wilson found the nest of a summer yellow bird 
built in the pensile nest of a red-eyed vireo of 
the previous year. Barn swallows have appro¬ 
priated the nests by force of a pair of cliff swal¬ 
lows which had built under the eaves of a barn. 
White-bellied swallows have been known to 
usurp forcibly a barn swallow’s nest. The red¬ 
start (Setophaga ruticilla Linn.) has placed its 
own nest upon the nest of the summer yellow 
bird ( Dendroica (estiva Gmel.) either taking pos¬ 
session of it by force or finding it abandoned. 
The ruby-crowned kinglet ( Regulus calendula 
Linn.) was observed to drive away the female 
of a species of blackbird ( Scolccophagus ferru¬ 
ginous) and tear its nest to pieces for its own 
use. The California house finch ( Carpodacus 
frontalis rhodocolpus Caban) has been .known 
to place its nest in the side of a hawk s nest, 
and also in an old nest of an oriole. 
I know of one instance only where the king¬ 
bird departed from its traditional methods and 
made use of another bird’s nest. This was a 
nest which I found on a horizontal limb of an 
oak tree near the Maanixit River, Oxford, Mass. 
The kingbirds had patched up with kingbird 
material, and after the kingbird manner, the mud 
shell of a robin’s old nest. The outside had 
received some additions of weed stalks and 
grasses, and the inside was lined in true king¬ 
bird style with plant down, fine grasses and 
roots, "it was far from being a typical king¬ 
bird’s nest, however; the mud wall would show. 
It would almost seem as if birds, too, were 
slovenly in their habits at times. 
Another nest of a most peculiar nature I once 
found constructed by the ovenbird ( Sciurus 
aurocapillus Linn.). It was built on the ground 
in the woods and roofed over as usual, a bulky 
affair of leaves, roots, grasses and weed stalks. 
Even after the bird had been flushed I had con¬ 
siderable difficulty in finding the nest, so per¬ 
fectly was it made to conform with the general 
character of the forest floor. I was collecting 
then, and in removing the nest, I noticed a glis¬ 
tening from some material in its makeup. On 
examination I found great numbers of large 
dragon fly wings interwoven with the grasses, 
leaves and other material, even to the lining. 
These glinting wings were of nearly the same 
size and of the unspotted kind entirely. What 
led the bird to choose such odd material? Could 
it possibly have eaten the dragon flies and saved 
the wings, or had it merely run across them in 
its hunt for the usual nest material? The river 
was only a few rods away, and this would ac¬ 
count for an abundance of these insects in the 
immediate vicinity. Many birds show a fond¬ 
ness for bits of bright, shining things. The 
crow has a marked tendency this way, and some 
vireos often attach fragments of insects to their 
nests. We are told of a bird that has a peculiar 
liking for a snake skin in its nest material. 
Many such instances of unique nesting materials 
seem born of erratic indefinable impulses. It 
would seem absurd to attribute them to- esthetic 
motives. We are in no position even to hazard 
an interpretation of these facts. The deep-seated 
instincts, however, apparently retain their in¬ 
dividuality with just as much persistence, as just 
as much a part of the vital organization of the 
bird as are its distinctive type of bill, feet or 
wings. H. A. Allard. 
[April 20, 1907. 
Frogs Catching Birds. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Regarding the letter in yours of March 30 
about frogs catching birds, the following may be 
of interest: ... 
While walking across ( a dam dividing twd 
trout ponds with a friend on my preserve 11 
Massachusetts, we noticed a chipmunk on th< 
narrow path ahead of us. It left the path a 
we approached and jumped from stone to stond 
near the water. It took one jump too man\ 
for a large frog caught it and instantly we couli 
plainly see it holding the chipmunk until it wa 
drowned, when the frog slowly swallowed it 
Leaving my friend to watch, I cut a stick and ii 
ten or more minutes, I should think, it came t> 
the surface, when I knocked it on the heac 
All that remained visible of the chipmunk wa 
half an inch of its tail. We pulled it out, bu 
it was of course dead. 
In this connection, I may state, we had quit 
a number of tame mallard ducks, which hatche 
their eggs in the woods, and the first, we sav 
of their young was in the water with thei 
mothers. "We noticed the number of the duck 
lings decreased quite rapidly and found on in 
vestigation that when they got near the shore; 
one after another were pulled under the wate 
by large frogs which drowned and then swa 
lowed them. To preserve them, whenever w 
saw a new brood on the water, we captured an 
kept them in the chicken yard until they wer 
quite large enough to take care of themselves. 
I have" seen these large frogs eat birds, on; 
chipmunk and each other. 
Robert B. Symington 
Philadelphia, Pa., April 1.— Editor Fort 
and Stream: The account about the frog ir 
terested me. Several seasons ago when fishin 
in Canada I came across a frog struggling wit 
a small bird in the water. The bird was a 
most dead, and the frog was trying to swallo 
it. We waited to see the finish, but becam 
tired. It might have taken a week for tl 
thing to end. Whether the frog had caught tl 
bird alive of course we could not tell, but 1 
was certainly trying to eat- it and had almo 
one-half of it down. 
Speaking of how slowly they move, one h; 
only to see a frog in a hurry to note also ho 
quickly they move. One I raised from a ta< 
pole and have kept for a long time, eats a- 
winter and all summer anything that has moticj 
of its own, as other smaller frogs, tadpde 
worms, etc., or meat when it is given motioi 
and the way he will catch a bug thrown mt 
the water and recover his former position 
remarkable. He moves quicker than your e} 
can follow; sort of rebounding, as it were, t 
his former seat among the grass if the obje 
he is striving for is only a few inches away. 
Frogs, from my limited observation, seem 
have two natures, one stupid and inactive- 
can put my finger on him and lift him up 0 
casionally—then there are other times when eve 
coming into the room makes him dive. 
It is surprising what an interesting study 01 
can make of a frog, and how incapable ma 
kind is of understanding the ways of even tl 
most lowly of animals. Tasker. 
Forest Products. 
Bulletin 74, “Statistics of Forest Products 
the United States: 1905,“ by R. S. Kellogg ai 
H. M. Hale, has just been published by t 
Forest Service and can be purchased for fifte' 
cents of the Superintendent of Documents, Go, 
ernment Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 
discussion of the lumber cut forms the chief pa 
of the bulletin. Statistics on the production . 
cross-ties, tight cooperage stock, pulp-wood, mi, 
timbers, tanbark, veneer, wood used in distill 
tion, and the production of lath and shingles a 
also included. This is the first detailed repc 
on wood products of the United States ever pu 
lished. Accurate knowledge of the annual d”£ 
upon our forests is highly important for lumbe 
men, timberland owners, and the general publ 
