166 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Kingbirds and Orioles had their homes 

 in the leafy top, but on this day they 

 were all strangely silent. Of course I 

 went down the hill from the shanty to 

 the tree, and there, perched on one 

 branch of the dead limb, sat a Sparrow 

 hawk, smoothing his feathers as if 

 this had been his life long home. 



About midway out the bare, dead 

 branch was the hole of a pair of Flick- 

 ers, which time and the wind had en- 

 larged to proportions comfortably 

 adapted to the use of the hawks. 

 From this to the bottom of the creek 

 bed was about twenty feet, and the 

 earth itself was covered with fern 

 brakes, dead and alive, to a depth of 

 not less than two feet. From the side- 

 hill whereon the tree grew to that first 

 limb was only ten feet or less, but the 

 hill went down precipitately from this 

 point and the climb was no easy one. 



Up I managed to go, however, and 

 with my little hatchet 1 chopped a 

 hole in the side of the dead limb. 

 Anyone who has ever tried to chop a 

 woodpecker out of a dead limb knows 

 what I was up against, but I went at 

 it good and strong and soon had a 

 hole through in which I could easily 

 put my hand. Down about six inches 

 was the set. One at a time I lifted 

 them out until I had counted five. 

 Then I started to go down, butthought 

 I might as well take a look at the in- 

 side of the nest, and there, lying on 

 the chips as nice as you please was a 

 sixth egg. It is the only set of six I 

 have ever seen or heard of, though I 

 have been told that they occasionally 

 laj^ six eggs further south, in Mexico 

 and on the Baja California peninsula. 



These eggs were perfectly fresh, but 

 very poorly marked, possibly, be- 

 cause there was such a big set, the 

 pigment did not quite go around. My 

 friend, Mr. Bradford, of Placentia, 

 Cal., has a set of this bird, taken in 

 Orange county, which is marked fully 

 as heavily as a set of red-footed fal- 



cons from Russia now in my collec- 

 tion. They are indeed beautiful eggs, 

 rivalling the famed osprey in their 

 markings. As a rule, however, the 

 eggs of the Desert Sparrow Hawk are 

 not heavily marked. Full sets are 

 almost always of five, sets of four 

 being extremely rare. Since that time 

 I have taken many sets, from pigeon 

 boxes, from hay lofts, from outbuild- 

 ings, from holes in dirt cliffs and even 

 from abandoned woodpecker holes in 

 telegraph poles, but never such a set 

 as this. 



Spotted Bank Swallow's Eggs. 



On Septemqer 3, 1903 I sent to Mr. J. 

 Warren Jacobs, of Waynesburg, Pa., 

 with several other abnormal sets, a set 

 of four spotted Bank Swallow's (Clivi- 

 cola riparia) eggs, and received from 

 him on the 12th inst. a postal acknow- 

 ledging the receipt of the eggs. He 

 said "that the spots may prove to be 

 dirt from small insects," and in a post- 

 script added "that he expected six sets 

 from E. H. Short, who thought the 

 marks was insects but could not judge." 



Upon rhe receipt of this meagre in- 

 formation I determined to investigate 

 next year (1904) and learn if possible, 

 whether the marks on "spotted" Bank 

 Swallow's eggs are made by insects and 

 not colored with pigment like the eggs 

 of the Cliff and Barn Swallows. 



In Philadelphia County the Bank 

 Swallow is a rare summer resident, 

 seldom nesting, on account of the 

 scarcitj^ of suitable banks, consequent- 

 ly my investigations had to be conduct- 

 ed far from hc^me. 



In New Jersey, along the Pensauken 

 Creek, Pensauken Township, Camden 

 County, there are several large sand 

 hanks where the Bank Swallow breeds 

 annually by the hundreds, with few 

 Rough-winged Swallows and an 

 occasional Kingfisher for companions. 

 It was at one of these colonies that my 



