50 



THE OOLOGIST 



rope twenty feet long and ten steps 

 of my ladder. I then went up to the 

 top of the cliff and fixed my outfit 

 and went to look down into the hole, 

 but the hole was very small and went 

 in about six feet, as near as I could 

 tell. 



In the same cliff remained another 

 place they had made frequent trips to 

 about thirty feet up and I again fixed 

 my outfit there, and the following day, 

 climbed up to it. It was a small hole 

 also, but luckily, only went in twelve 

 inches. So I reached my hand in and 

 pulled the nest out. To my surprise 

 I looked into it to find three eggs 

 about one-third incubated. I give data 

 here. 



Nest made of grass, cemented to- 

 gether with saliva and lined with 

 feathers. Three eggs measure about 

 .87 X .52 inches, eggs white. 



There still remained one more cliff 

 that was about a mile West of these 

 two cliffs, where I had seen four of 

 the Swifts flying around at different 

 times, and on the 24th of May I start- 

 ed for there with my outfit. I had the 

 good luck to find one nest and secure 

 the four fresh eggs inside of three 

 hours after I reached there. The fe- 

 male called out in the crevice and the 

 male flew in making four trips 

 into the hole inside of twen- 

 ty minutes. This was a much 

 harder nest to reach than I had 

 supposed it to be, it taking one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet of rope. But as I 

 had a hundred foot throw line for my 

 ladder, I had plenty of rope. I set my 

 outfit and let the nest go for a few 

 minutes, thinking I could find the oth- 

 er nest, and I watched about five min- 

 utes and saw a Swift fly in a crevice 

 about ten feet to one side of the one 

 I had found before. 



Then I went down and found the 

 nest in a small crevice, and as the 

 bird came out I could easily have 



caught her. I looked in and pulled 

 the nest out, which contained four 

 fresh eggs; the nest the same kind as 

 the other nest I described. 



As far as I am aware there have 

 been but few sets of these Swifts that 

 have found their way into smaller col- 

 lections. 



The next place I examined for 

 Swifts was a large cliff in June, at 

 which I had seen fourteen Swifts. I 

 located two nests and could hear the 

 young ones call out, so I gave up the 

 Swifts for the season 1909. 



FRED TRUESDALE. 



Unusual Red-Tailed Hawk Eggs. 



Under the head of "Unusual Eggs" 

 a writer in the January OOLOGIST 

 speaks of small eggs of Red-tailed 

 Hawk in which I was interested to 

 the extent of carefully going over my 

 own series and records of measure- 

 ments for comparison. 



There are four sets of eggs in my 

 series deserving of special notice be- 

 cause they contain specimens repre- 

 senting extreme types in size in one 

 or both measurements. 



One is a set of two faintly marked 

 specimens, one of which is a decided 

 runt measuring 2.12 x 1.59 inches 

 while its companion, measuring 2.28 

 x 1.7.3 inches is unusually small, but 

 comes within the limits of normal spe- 

 cimens. 



The second set was taken by E. B. 

 Peck, Clifton Springs, New York, May 

 5, 1891. Size 2.12 x 1.62 and 2.38 x 

 1.79 inches. 



The third was taken by the writer 

 in March 30, 1898. They were globu- 

 lar in shape, the short diameter of the 

 three eggs being near the average, 

 while the length of one reaches the 

 unusual miniirr-M of 2.07 inches. The 

 other two eggs measures 2.13 and 2.22 

 inches long. 



The fourth set i - very interesting in- 



