Det EAU DUB ON BULLE EEN 19 

The real truth is that Lake Decatur is such a pleasure resort and 
therefore so populous and at times noisy that it is hard for the birds 
to find the quiet places they desire. 
Other birds than water birds find it a real delight and they seem to 
nest in increasing numbers around here wherever they have encourage- 
ment or just plain letting alone. 
The southern mocking bird is interesting me especially just now. 
The real mocking birds have been staying in this vicinity during the en- 
tire winter months and nesting here in the summer time. I know it is 
true because I have seen them. One, for several winters, stayed in a 
cemetery here and attracted a lot of attention. 
At first I thought Lake Decatur had every possibility as a bird 
sanctuary but I have become disappointed, although I know it will 
always serve more or less as an attraction even if they do realize they are 
not as safe as some of us would like to see them. Mary SEAMAN, 
Broad-Winged Hawk Migration 
N THE nineteenth of December, 1927, about nine o’clock in the 
() morning I looked out of an upper window and saw some work- 
men gazing very intently at the sky. Thinking it was a passing 
plane, I paid no further attention. However, later on I saw them still 
standing with their eyes turned heavenward. Wondering what claimed 
their attention for so long, I stepped out and saw a large flock of birds 
soaring southwest. They were very high in the sky but I knew by their 
manner of flight they must be hawks. Upon getting my binoculars I 
discovered they were the broad-winged hawks. They came in separate 
flocks of about fifty each, and a few minutes apart. I watched at least 
ten flocks pass and upon questioning the workmen, I found they had been 
passing steadily for ten or fifteen minutes. I judged there must have 
been many hundreds of them. I do not know whether this was an 
unusual sight, but to me it was a high light in my long study of birds. 
I wonder who has ever gazed upon a nest of fledgelings the first day 
they get their pin feathers? Last year a robin built a nest on the post 
of our rose trellis. From my upstairs bedroom window I could see di- 
rectly down into the nest. One morning about the eighth day I looked 
down and was so astonished, I thought for a moment the baby robins 
had been replaced by infant blue jays. The whole nest seemed filled 
with an exquisite, hazy, iridescent blue. 
There was a lark’s nest back of our home and I had the joy of seeing 
this same beautiful sight. 
On the twelfth of January, of this year, I heard a horned lark singing 
very close to my window. It was an unusually warm day. 
Mrs. R. F. CryDEr. 
