THE OOLOGIST 



box secured at the grocery store, and 

 by nailing two partitions at right 

 angles in the box four medium sized 

 rooms were constructed; I next cut 

 four round holes allowing easy access 

 to any of the rooms; we finished by 

 adding two porches with slanting roof, 

 fastening one end of a sturdy pole to 

 the box we then proceeded to nail the 

 other end to a fence post in the 

 chicken yeard, between the chicken 

 house and a large red oak tree. Al- 

 though we anxiously watched the new 

 house for several days, it showed no 

 signs of being occupied, so we practic- 

 ally forgot it until one afternoon about 

 three weeks later we noticed straw 

 protruding from one of the lower 

 holes; promptly getting a step-ladder 

 we looked into the box and saw a 

 rather bulky nest made of nondescript 

 material. The nest contained one egg, 

 which we took to be English Sparrow; 

 it was rather dark in the nest and we 

 did not touch the egg; before de- 

 scending the ladder we noticed that 

 the upper right hand hole also con- 

 tained an about half-made nest. We 

 did not look into the box again until 

 the third day after our first visit, and 

 were surprised to find the nest that 

 was started on our previous visit com- 

 pleted and containing one egg; we 

 took each egg out of the two nests, 

 looked at them and returned them to 

 their original places; in doing this we 

 noticed a medium sized snake skin in 

 or at the side of one nest, and I re 

 marked to my companion that the bird 

 must be hard up for building material 

 if forced to use snake skins for nests. 

 We did not know what kind of bird 

 occupied our box, so hid nearby and 

 waited to see; after waiting patiently 

 for half an hour, during which time 

 we often heard the pair of birds call- 

 ing each other, but did not see theuj 

 until suddenly the female flew to the 

 top hole and went in and stayed as 



.ong as we watched. The next after- 

 noon we looked again and to our sur- 

 prise found a third egg laid on a few 

 grass roots in a different room from 

 either of the other eggs. Our identity 

 of the bird not being positive, we 

 looked in our bird books for descrip- 

 tion of bird and eggs, and when we 

 read the following description of the 

 eggs it fitted them so exactly that 

 we were sure they were Crested Fly- 

 catcher eggs (the strong personality 

 of the bird is stamped even upon the 

 eggs. Where is any to match them 

 for curious crazy coloring? The artist 

 had purple inks shading all the way 

 from the deepest chestnut-purple to 

 the faintest lilac. With a sharp pen 

 he scratched the shell from end to 

 end with all his colors till it was 

 covered, then finished it off with a 

 few wild flourishes and crosswise 

 scrawls.) 



We took the tnree eggs and blew 

 chem, using a pm to make a hole to 

 empty the contents. I still have one 

 of the eggs and I have since found 

 that it is a typical specimen of the 

 Crested i<'lycatcher. This peculiar in- 

 cident aroused my interest in birds 

 and eggs, which has been growing ever 

 since. David T. Young. 



Bentonville, Ark., Jan. 8, 1923. 



Werner — Taxidermist. 



I am very much interested in the 

 supplement to the October Oologist by 

 Reger, of Norristown, Pa., particu- 

 larly as I knew Mr. Werner intimately, 

 and went on a trip to Texas with him 

 in 1884 and helped him collect some of 

 the birds Reger now has in the coUeo 

 lion he obtained from the Werner es- 

 tate. Werner was an artist in the 

 lines of photography and taxidermy, 

 and he commercialized his work only 

 because he was compelled to in order 

 to live. He often lamented to me that 

 he was compelled to sell the creations 



