48 THE CONDOR VOL. VI

ever, the young grosbeaks were beyond the reach of the camera. Theirwings had developed strength and they were beginning to hunt for themselves. Portlaird, Oregon. MALE GROSBEAK AND THREE YOUNG Extracts from Some Montana Note-books, i9o 4 BY P. [. $ILLO%VA ILLOW Thicket, Spring Creek, Lewistown. Mont. May 7.--A most dis- tressing event occurred today in our usually quiet little grove, an event that occurs annually about this time, though, and tonight I am mourn- ing the loss of embryonic offspring. It was a magnificent setting, although it was the traditional unlucky number thirteen. I might have known, experienced old magpie that I am, it would turn out unlucky for me, and I should have stopped at the number twelve, as I did last year; but now it seems that my treasured thirteen is to rest on a cottony bed beside my lost twelve of last year. Today that same voracious egg-hog, genus Homo, called Silloway, came wandering through the thicket. I was sitting quietly in my earthen cot, meditating on the numerous cares awaiting me as the proud mother of thirteen infants, when a rude shock at base of the small haw I had chosen for my home site caused me to flit from the nest. The Homo collector hurried up to my snug tenement, anchored himself among the many thorns which beset the surrounding branches, adjusted a cigar box in front of him, and began to remove one by one my precious clutch. There is no thorn without its rose, however, and even in my distress it was amusing to watch him try to pack thirteen eggs with cotton intended for only nine eggs, in a space intended for only nine eggs. He stretched every bit of cotton to its utmost capacity, poked unwrapped eggs into cavities between wrapped eggs, and finally worked his way down in an apparent condition of hilarious bewilderment. Here-