732 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 13, 1911. 
was peculiar and interesting, too, in claiming 
that the birds were “nesting in green trees thirty 
feet and higher from the ground.” The people 
reporting did not seem to be able to get a good 
look at the birds or the nests and were appar¬ 
ently unable to count two. I failed to get them 
to tell me how many eggs there were in the 
nests, although they claimed to have from six 
to eight or ten pairs nesting close together. 
The “green trees” proved to be Norway 
spruces, four clumps of them on a slight rise 
in the dooryard of the farm house. Our party 
arrived on the scene, eleven miles out of Pough¬ 
keepsie, in Mr. Gildersleeve's automobile, about 
3 o’clock p. m. No birds were in sight, but one 
of the informers had picked up half a hatched 
egg shell, the best thing in the world to do in 
such a case, which looked too small for pas¬ 
senger pigeon. We were told that the birds 
often came to the spruces to roost, but were 
generally best seen early in the morning. I 
immediately decided to camp for the night, and 
the rest of the party returned to Poughkeepsie. 
Walking about the place by 5 o’clock I had 
rounded up a flock of eight mourning doves. 
The people assured me that they had not heard 
mourning doves about, “except one away off in 
the woods.” As they came in from the sur¬ 
rounding fields that evening they poured their 
doleful music over the place. I climbed two of 
the trees and there, sure enough, found the nests 
well over thirty feet up among the thick, topmost 
branches. I think this is a record for mourning 
doves. At least, John Burroughs said that he 
had never known of their nesting so high, or 
so many close together. I think it is explained 
by the fact that the spruces formed an island 
of favorable nesting sites in an otherwise un¬ 
favorable field. Cats were in evidence, and the 
lower branches drooped so decidedly that the 
birds could scarcely find safe and secure nest¬ 
ing sites lower down. 
Luckily I stumbled on a sumptuous motor car 
and some good natured men who gave me a 
ride in to Poughkeepsie, and by 10:30 was at 
home for the night in the city. The next day, 
spent with John Burroughs at Slabsides, quite 
banished all disappointments, but I hope “three 
times and out” may prove true for my mourning 
dove journeys. C. F. Hodge. 
Marked Small Birds. 
The work of the American Bird Banding So¬ 
ciety carried on in 1909 and 1910 has yielded 
some results which have not been published. 
Two or three records of small birds are the 
following: 
A robin, No. 1212, was banded by Dr. Ora 
Willis Knight, at Bangor, Me., on July 18, 1910, 
and was captured at Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 
21, 1911. 
A robin banded by Wilmer C. Gangloff, near 
Sandusky, Ohio, on June 5, 1909, was taken at 
Edgefield, Tenn., Feb. 12, 1910. 
A Parkman’s wren banded on July 31, 1909, 
by Wm. L. Finley, at Jennings Lodge, Clackamas 
county, Oregon, was found dead in a watering 
trough at Woodburn, Ore., on June 26, 1910. 
A spotted sandpiper banded June 7, 1910, at 
the Four-Brothers Island, Lake Champlain, New 
York, was shot at Squantum, Mass., on Sept. 5 
or 6, 1910. 
Wildfowl on a Massachusetts Lake. 
The extraordinary number, of wildfowl that 
during the migrations visit certain Massachu¬ 
setts lakes and the great preparations made by 
gunners for their destruction, together with the 
success which these gunners often achieve are 
weli known to all New Englanders, but perhaps 
very little known to those who live in the other 
parts of the country. During their migrations 
toward their winter home vast numbers of wild¬ 
fowl from the northeast fly across Massachu¬ 
setts, and on their way north in spring reverse 
the flight and again cross the State. Of those 
so passing, many stop to feed and rest, and of 
these a large proportion are killed. In the last 
number of the Auk, J. C. Phillips, of Wenham, 
Mass., contributes an article of extraordinary 
interest to all gunners, and gives observations 
on the migration of the duck family on Wen- 
ham Lake, carried on over ten consecutive years. 
Observations extending over only ten years 
do not justify any positive conclusion, but on 
the other hand these are vastly better than the 
occasional and haphazard notes or recollections 
which are all that the average gunner has for 
a guide. 
Wenham Lake lies twenty miles northeast of 
Boston, in a thickly settled region. It is one 
and one-third miles in length and is bordered 
on the east by a brightly lighted main road, 
while about its southern end are pumping sta¬ 
tions, ice houses and cottages. At the northern 
end are other ice houses, but the whole western 
shore is wild, mostly high land, forested. The 
waters of the lake are well supplied with the 
water plants on which ducks largely subsist, 
Potamageton, Sagittaria and Vallisneria. These 
and other p’ants growing there are weil known 
duck food, and are found up and down the 
coast. 
The observations given by Mr. Phillips begin 
with the year 1900 and close with 1909. The 
period of observation usually begins about the 
middle of September and runs to the 10th or 
15th of November, though in 1901 and 1902 the 
observations were continued into December. A 
printed table shows all the fowl seen between 
those dates, those that came to the pond, those 
that were killed, and the number of different 
species taken during any year. The greatest 
number of species was taken in 1904, when there 
were twenty, and the smallest number in 1906, 
when there were seven. On the other hand, in 
1906 only fifty-one birds were killed. 
For the ten years the table gives a total of 
7,211 fowl seen, of which 3,741 alighted in the 
pond and 2,054 were shot. For the period of 
five years, from 1900 to 1904 inclusive, 5,045 fowl 
were seen, of which 2,369 alighted in the pond 
and 1,325 were killed. For the last five years, 
1905-09, 2,166 fowl were seen; 1,372 alighted 
and 729 were killed. Mr. Phillips calls especial 
attention to the extraordinary diminution be¬ 
tween the total fowl for the last five years com¬ 
pared with the total for the first five years—a 
little over 2,000 as against a little over 5,000. 
He does not believe that any such actual diminu¬ 
tion of fowl as these figures suggest has taken 
place, but undoubtedly there is a decrease and 
a very considerable one, although, as he points 
out, on shooting grounds at Currituck Sound, the 
season of 1909 and 1910, which in his table shows 
very bully, was there unusually successful for 
one or more clubs. He is inclined to attribute 
a part of the decrease to the placing of greater 
number of electric lights about Wenham Lake 
and to the increase of boating. 
Taking up the species killed—geese do not 
figure much in the totals at Wenham, as that 
lake is slightly out of their migration line—we 
find that the blackduck, dusky duck or black 
mallard, make up 33 per cent, of all the birds 
shot in this ten-year period. Mallards are very 
scarce, while widgeons are much more common. 
Teal, shovellers, pintail, woodducks and canvas- 
backs are all very scarce. There were thirty- 
three mallards killed in the ten years, but in 
five of the ten none at all were seen. Redheads, 
broadbills, whistlers and buffleheads, together 
with ruddies, are more abundant, the last named 
constituting perhaps 15 per cent, of the total 
number of fowl killed. Besides these there were 
three species of mergansers, three of grebes, 
two of loons and a cormorant and the coot or 
mudhen. 
To Chebacco Lake, Mr. Phillips gives some 
attention, but for this lake he has not the de¬ 
tailed records that he has for Wenham. Geese 
are three times as numerous at this lake as at 
the larger one; brant sometimes come in. A 
collection of stomachs was made in 1909—sixty- 
six specimens representing eleven species of 
wildfowl, and these stomachs were examined 
and their contents reported on by W. L. McAtee, 
of the Biological Survey. Many of them seemed 
to come from far-traveled birds. 
Dr. Lucas for American Museum. 
At a meeting held this week, the trustees of 
the American Museum of Natural History elected 
Dr. Frederick A. Lucas director of the museum, 
to take the place formerly held by Dr. H. C. 
Bumpus, who resigned some months ago. 
Dr. Lucas has been since 1904 chief curator of 
the museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts 
and Sciences, and the trustees of the museum 
had great difficulty in inducing him to give up 
his position there where he has done wonder¬ 
fully good work. He will assume his new duties 
June 15. 
Dr. Lucas is one of the best museum men in 
the country. He was born in Massachusetts in 
the year 1852, undertook practical natural history 
work at Ward's Natural Science Establishment 
in Rochester when only nineteen years old, was 
called to the United States National Museum 
as osteologist in 1882, and after various promo¬ 
tions there was called to Brooklyn as stated. He 
has served on the United States Seal Investiga¬ 
tion Committee, and is an expert as to the fur 
seal, as he is in many other departments of 
biology. He has long been a director of the 
National Association of Audubon Societies, and 
stands very high among scientific men. 
The trustees of the American Museum have 
elaborated a number of new plans for the en¬ 
largement of the museum and the broadening 
of its work. These include considerations look¬ 
ing toward the developments of the next ten 
years. 
The museum will be fifty years old in 1919. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
