110 



THE OOLOGIST 



I have found their ugly eggs In the 

 little Least Flycatcher's nest, in the 

 well hidden homes of the Oven Bird 

 and Chewink. They have even as- 

 cended to the high, swaying nest of 

 the Baltimore Oriole, to deposit their 

 germs of destruction. 



The death of one full grown cow- 

 bird means the presence in the world 

 of ten other and useful birds. Thrush- 

 es, Catbirds, and Ground Sparrows es- 

 pecially, for in six catbird's nests, 

 eight thrushes, and four song spar- 

 rows, cowbird's eggs were found with- 

 out exception. 



Hither-to, war has been waged most 

 vehemently on the English Sparrow, 

 but I herein urgently request all 

 naturalists, all lovers of our Feathered 

 Friends, to rouse themselves and make 

 the steadily increasing number of 

 COWBIRDS as steadily decrease. 

 By GLEN V. KRAUS, 



Marshfield, Wis. 



AMERICAN RAVEN. 



1 think 1 have nnide a rare find, and 

 as so little has been said on this sub- 

 ject, I will write it up. 



On March 26, of this year, while 

 about thirty miles from Shandon in 

 foot hills of Kern County, I made the 

 following discovery. 



After hunting over a large canyon 

 covered with trees on one side and 

 very rocky on the other, and finding 

 nothing, I went across to another very 

 rocky canyon. On my arrival there 

 I found a nest with five fresh Prairie 

 Falcon eggs. The rock in which the 

 nest was built was about one hundred 

 feet long and from forty to one hun- 

 dred feet high. The Falcon nest which 

 faced the south, was placed in an old 

 raven's nest about twenty feet from 

 the ground. 



On going farther down I found an- 

 other lai-ge rock. This one was about 



one hundred feet high.. I fOuUI s^^e rt 

 nest up in 'A cvevice. t th'reW u\) a 

 stone and off fft^w MfkdElhi Raven-, t 

 hurt'ied up the roclv anil soon came to 

 where 1 could see the edge of the nest-. 

 1 Wias at least teii ffeet from the nest 

 and could plainly sfee toUr eggs. I 

 tried to g^t Rotnething to fish the eggs 

 out with, but couldn't, so I decided to 

 try to get there with rope. The way 

 I swung around there wasn't slow. 

 When I reached the nest I found there 

 were seven eggs. Was I surprised? 

 1 wonder! When I tested them I found 

 the incubation to be stai'terl.. 



I was very hai)py over my i-jlre [jrizfe; 

 Having biife s(iti Which you know is 

 genuine, is worth a dozen doubtful 

 sets. 1 give the following data: 



Nest i)laced in crevice of rock, ten 

 feet up and one hundred feet down 

 from top of rock. Tlie nest was made 

 of sticks and lined with wool. 



This is the first set of seven I ever 

 took. Sets of six aren't so common as 

 those of five. 



The first set 1 found this year con- 

 tained six fresh eggs. The eggs var= 

 led a great deal in size, but carried 

 the same markings. There was one 

 odd egg, that is in all sets 1 have ever 

 taken or seen. This nest was in a 

 l>ine tree about sixty-five feet from tlie 

 ground. It was made of sticks and 

 lined with cow's hair. This set is in 

 the Oological collection of Mr. A. E. 

 Price. 



One more set was taken by me in 

 a cliff about sixty feet down and thirty 

 feet up. This set contained four 

 very large, handsome eggs. The nest 

 was of the usual structure. 



The raven is very bad about other 

 bird's eggs, and I have known them to 

 eat chicken eggs. 



I must sto|) on this species, as I am 

 very |)roud of my raven sets. 



FRED TRUESDALE. 



