90 



THE OOLOGIST. 



and Pacific Horned Owl, Red-bellied 

 Hawk and Desert Sparrow-hawk but 

 a friend of mine let me have one of 

 the nicest sets of Desert Sparrow- 

 hawk I have ever seen. I took 3 

 nice sets of Am. Raven the first be- 

 ing a set of 5, the second a set of 5, 

 and the third a set of4 ,all beingfresh 

 eggs. 



I am hoping to get out this fall to 

 see some of my old bird chums, be- 

 ing my only chance, as collecting 

 starts here early in March. I will 

 now mention the Prairie Falcon 

 again. I started out to get an inac- 

 cesable nest of Prairie Falcon tak- 

 ing two boys, one about 13, the other 

 14 years' old. When we arrived 

 there the bird being on the nest, I 

 climbed up the side of the rock, and 

 tied a rope to a hole in the rock and 

 lowered my rope down over a hun- 

 dred feet the young boy, being an 

 expert, climbed down had the eggs, 

 and was down in 40 minutes after 

 he started up. The eggs were fresh, 

 but one being broken on the road 

 home left an incomplete set of four. 



If any of you bird friends have tak- 

 en the eggs of this Falcon you know 

 the danger one runs in getting them. 

 F. Truesdale. 

 Editor Oologist: — 



Your comment on Mr. Reinecke's 

 article concerning the Nesting of the 

 Great Blue Heron in New York see 

 Dec. '06 Oologist, is susceptible of 

 miscontruction. It is possible that 

 your comment may be understood as 

 indicating; that sets of eggs of the 

 . Blue Heron in the North are normal- 

 ly. Three and Four in number; and 

 that the eggs are relatively large of 

 size. 



It is doubtful if this induction holds 

 good. I have never heard of a set 

 of Six Eggs as having been taken in 

 the West; while the normal woul^ 

 seem to lie in sets of Four and of 

 Five. As to sizes it would be both 



of interest and value if collectors 

 would carefully measure sets of 

 Southern-collected and of Northern- 

 taken sets of the Great Blue Heron in 

 their possession; and then report, 

 concertedly, to the Oologist as to re- 

 sults covering both the lines of data 

 in question. 



P. B. Peabody, 

 Blue Rapids, Kan. 



Ans. — Sorry this was subject to 

 such misconstruction. Just the op- 

 posite was intended. Sets of Tex. 

 and Fla. eggs passing through my 

 hands have usually run 3 or 4 eggs 

 of large average size. Northern sets 

 have run up to 5 and 6 eggs and ap- 

 parently averaging smaller. 



As a partial test we measured the 

 first sets 2-3 from Texas that we 

 came to. Average 2.65x1.85 hundredths.. 

 The first sets 2-5 we struck one from 

 New York and one from Utah meas- 

 ured average of 2.47x1.79. Nothing 

 alarming in difference but to stand 

 off and look a series it looks more 

 than that.— Ed. 



REMINISCENCES OF BIRD-LIFE 

 AT CAMP ALGER, VA. 



By B. S. Bowdish. 



Recently while looking over some 

 old papers, I came across some notes 

 prepared for a brief paper on the 

 birds noted while in camp during the 

 summer of 1898, at Falls Church, Va., 

 and as these notes refer to bird-life 

 under rather peculiar conditions, I 

 combined that they might still be 

 worth publishing. 



I believe that the army gathered at 

 Camp Alger was some thing like 16,- 

 000, and it may be readily under- 

 stood that the proximity of this mul- 

 titude did not tend to increase the 

 number of birds in that region. The 

 opporunities for observation which I 

 enjoyed, were confined to the small 

 area of the Third New York Volun- 



