Tramping over the moors for a mile or so, a bird rises from the hillside before us and dashes away at a great rate. Marking down the spot, we find a stone surrounded by bird’s feathers and insects’ wings, and pick up a titlark which is still warm. This is the shambles of a merlin hawk who was just going to dine off the titlark when we disturbed him. We set about to look around for its nest, when my brother cried out “Here it is with four splendid eggs.” In a few seconds I was there, gazing on the treasures with delight and admiration. The nest was a mixed mass of twigs, heather and brakens, raised a few inches high; and the four eggs resting in a slight hollow in the center. Their ground color was a dark, crimson brown, speckled all over with dark brown and black. Some varieties resemble eggs of the kestril hawk, but a series of fifty eggs before me do not show such varieties in color as the eggs of the kestril do. As a rule, they are smaller than the kestril’s eggs and not so round, nor so boldly marked. We blow the eggs and pack them away with care, and proceed farther on.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
For The Hawkeye O. and O. NOTES ON SOME OF THE PASSERES OF FULTON CO., KY.
THIRD PAPER, BY L. O., PINDAR, PRES. Y. O. A., HICKMAN, KY.
Following the family Corvidæ, comes the family Icteridæ. The commoner species of this family in this part of Kentucky are the red-winged blackbird, the meadow lark, the Baltimore oriole and the purple grackle. The orchard oriole and the rusty blackbird are also found; but over two years of study and careful searching in our woods and fields has failed to detect the bobolink and cowbird.
I purpose to devote this paper to the meadow lark and the Baltimore oriole.
First come; first served. The meadow or field lark is a common resident here and seems to collect in colonies. I know of two fields where I can always find them, while in other, seemingly just as favored meadows, I have failed to see them.
Early in the spring, I think, of ’87, I shot at one of these birds and came very near making a clear miss as only one shot struck him and that cut off his leg. I picked him up and was going to kill him when the thought came across my mind to make a pet of him. Accordingly, on reaching home, I put him in a cage and fed him corn meal, which he ate greedily. He also relished a few wheat grains which I let him have. He grew very tame shortly, and on several occasions woke me up in the morning by his clear, rich whistling; but one day I left a lot of meal by the cage and he killed himself eating it. I would have supposed he would have known when he had enough, but he didn’t.
Mr. J. B. Richards, Sec’y. Y. O. A., writes me that he has known a wild bobolink to kill itself by eating too much, and he lost a pet bobolink in the same way.
The meadow lark is accused by some writers of murdering and devouring, not only its own, but other birds’ nestlings, and of being an egg-sucker; but I have nothing to offer on that point myself.