148 



THE OOLOGIST. 



aiigf twigs and lined with tliistli' down. 

 The pai'ents sat uoar by, and tlic oiy of 

 the female was piteous indeed. He, 

 who lias not s<nil enough to fee! deep 

 sympathy with the pafents eiy of dis- 

 tre.ss, is not niueh of a naturalist. 



May 16. Visited the Cormorant 

 rookery mentioned previously, and 

 found vigorous i)reparations for build- 

 ing going on, but no eggs. Met one t)f 

 those pesky "i>lume Hunters" trying to 

 secure an egret or two. He showed 

 me a set of three Green Heron's 

 eggs; they were fresh and placed on a 

 mangrove tree, a1)out 8 feet from the 

 ground. 



May 21. Went to a Bayou to hunt 

 Kails eggs, and tramped for hours and 

 found one rotten egg and got disgusted 

 and left. FolloAved up the banks of a 

 ereek and saw two nests containing 

 young Green Herons and got one set of 

 2 fresh eggs. Saw a nest containing 3 

 eggs, nearly 25 feet up in a sapling; an 

 unusual height for a Green Heron. 



May 26. I again visited the Cormo- 

 rant rookery, with better success than 

 before. Climbing a mangrove tree, in 

 which all the nests were built, I was 

 pleased to find 3 nests containing 3 eggs 

 each; you maybe sure I "jugged" them. 

 The nests averaged 30 feet from the 

 ground. I next took a set of 4, and 

 then 4 sets of 3, 1 set of 2 and 1 set of 1. 

 Leaving the kej", went to outside flats 

 to look for Gulls' eggs; found none, and 

 came to a key, and while exploring, 

 found a set of 1 , Chuck -wiils-widow's. 

 The egg was laid under a young pine 

 tree, on the pine straw. There was no 

 attempt made to build a nest. 



May 28. My brother and I started on 

 a trip down the coast to turn sea turtles. 

 AVe reached Passage Kej", 12 miles 

 from Bonifavio. at du-^k. Many hun- 

 dreds of Laughing Gulls liovering over 

 the Island, gave promise of a successful 

 day to come; so retired full of pleasant 

 expectation. 



May 29. Arost^ and after huuhint;. 



we lamled and proi-eeded ii> limit for 

 eggs. The key is covered with tussocks 

 of eoarse grass, and in this the Gulljiis- 

 ually makes a wallow and dejiosits her 

 eggs, but sonii'times she lays on bare 

 sand. We had found one set of three, 

 6 sets of 2 and 3 sets of 1, liy noon. 

 Then entering a thicket, ou tlu* odge of 

 a jioud, in the key, Ave found a colony 

 of Louisiana Herons, nesting, and ob- 

 tained 8 sets of o and 1 .^et of 2. The 

 nests were made of loosely arranged 

 sticks and very poorly constructed. 

 Wading along the edge of the pond, I 

 discovered 2 sets of 3 fresh eggs of Grej' 

 Kingbird. The nests were remarkably 

 thin and weak, composed of brown fib- 

 rous material and placed about 6 ft. up. 

 Also found one set of B. T. Giackle's, 3 

 fresh eggs in the set; nest placed in 

 mangi-ove limb, overhanging the water. 



June 3. Returning with a load of 

 turtles and turtle's eggs, we landed 

 again on Pa.ssage Key and collected 15 

 sets of 3 and 2 sets of 2 Laughing 

 Gull's. Leaving the key at noun, 

 reached home safely. 



June Myself, a gentleman and wife 

 went to Passage Key. I found 1 set of 3 

 and 3 sets of 2 Laughing Gull's. Ou 

 the northern end of the key the Black 

 Skimmers wei-e nesting on a bare sand 

 spot. proceeded thither and found 2 

 sets of 3,1 of 2, 8 singles. Leaving late. 

 we sailed home. 



July 29. While on my way to work, 

 passing through a Ioav piece of ground, 

 I flushed a Xight Hawk and was much 

 pleased to find a set of two fresh eggs. 

 The variation in the . set Avas very 

 mai-ked, oue egg being quite dark and 

 A"er3' tliickly spotted Avith broAvn, and 

 the other nearly Avhite Avitli onlj- a fcAv 

 blotches ou its surface. The eggs Avere 

 laid in a most open spot and there Avas 

 not CAcn a Avallow to serve as a nest. 



This completes the list of specimens 

 taken during the year 1888. During 



the present year, expect to take many 

 ncAV species (to me) and Avill send in 



