THE OOLOGIST. 



11 



blown and added to our egg cabinet 

 •we replace the stalk and leave them to 

 the tender care of the tiny mother. 



While busy with the mouse aud her 

 progency my eyes have been upon yon 

 tall Cottonwood by the shore and just 

 now I saw a bird alight upon one of the 

 higher branches and disappear. 



It i3 a good thing that we threw those 

 climbing irons in the boat for here is 

 something that requires their use. 



Forty feet to the lowest limb then 

 twenty more to a small hole in the body 

 of the tree. When almost up there a 

 head peers out of the hole and ij turned 

 down to reconnoitre. Satisfied wiih 

 the investigation the occupant pitches 

 out and is awav. "Wood Duck," you 

 say, and you are right. The only 

 wonder is that so large a bird can enter 

 so small a hole. But she did for you 

 saw her come out, and to my mind you 

 saw the handsomest of our water fowls. 



Tne iridasceose of the wood duck's 

 plumage is mere beautiful than that of 

 any other bird that visits these latitudes. 



A few blows of the hand ax and the 

 opening is large enough for you to see 

 the bottom. It is about four feet deep 

 and lined with grass and down. 



There are eight buff colored eggs. 



It is with very few qualms of con 

 science that we appropriate her treasur- 

 es for we are sure that she will come 

 back and immediately proceed to re- 

 plenish them. Let us hope that no 

 other vandal collector will discover her 

 and that we may have t he pleasure some 

 day of seeing her transfer her progency 

 to their natural element, one at a lime 

 in her bill. 



Hunger waits for no man. Likewise 

 time is not much of a procrastinator 

 and both have been busy while we were, 

 and now the sun that was lately just 

 gilding the mountain tops is far beyond 

 the zenith and hunger ij gnawing at 

 the citidel of man's existence, admon- 

 ishing us that at that big hotel off yr n- 

 der across the lake is the wherewith 



to quit this craving. Loading in our 

 treasures of the day we are soon landed 

 in town and appeasing the appetite that 

 effort and outdoor life gives. 



Chas. S. Moodt, M. D. 



Wilson's Phalarope. 



With a plumage and a character all 

 its own, and a domain fairly exclusive, 

 among the marsh denizens, the Wil- 

 son's Phalarope tills a delightful place, 

 in the heart of the bird student, among 

 our western prairie marshes. Strictly 

 speaking, the dainty bird we are study- 

 ing is neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. He 

 is too small for a duck; too bright- 

 colored for a mere sand-peep; and too 

 odd in his domestic habits to be classed 

 with any other bird of our North 

 American orni^. 



He arrives about the second week in 

 May, as a rule, in the porthern states; 

 thronging, at times, the marshes and 

 the wet timothy fidlds. He is quite as 

 much of a swimmer as of a wader; and 

 no more exquisite sight could kindle 

 the enthusiasm of the student, atield, 

 than the s ght of a wisp of these trim 

 waders floaling, with absolute buoyancy 

 in and amid the foam and flotsam of the 

 margin of some marshy lake; picking 

 up, with consumate grace, the particles 

 of food cast up by the waves. 



For some three weeks after their 

 arrival, these birds gladden landscape 

 and water-scape, in carefree abandon. 

 They are ever on the move, afoot or 

 awing; and during these three weeks 

 of junketing, the unique courtship is 

 carried on. There is no more laugh- 

 able sight, to one endowed with a 

 modicum of the sense of humor, than 

 that of a couple, or even three, of the 

 brightly-colored females, ardently chas- 

 ing a single somber- plumaeed male, 

 who turns and darts, here and 

 there, in arrowy flights, apparently 

 much bored by the whole performance. 

 Meanwhile, the sometimes-dangling 

 feet and the ever tremulous wings of 



