-50 



THE OOLOGIST. 



keeper favored us with the very rare 

 set of four eggs. The eggs were laid, 

 some on the bare rocks, in a little nat- 

 ural hollow, others on a few bits of 

 broken stone (not pebbles) which were 

 shaped into a nest, and others still, had 

 a rude nest made of a rank grass that 

 grew very sparsely out of crevasses in 

 the rock. On blowing the eggs we 

 noticed that wherever thei'e was a grass 

 nest, the eggs were well along in incu- 

 bation. Whether this was caused by 

 the first layer's getting most of the loose 

 ^rass, or whether it was placed there 

 by the birds after incubation had be- 

 gun, we do not venture to say, but we 

 incline to the former, us some of the 

 eggs taken from the bare I'ock showed 

 incubation of from seven to fourteen 

 days. 



The ground color of the eggs varies 

 from pale green to olive and from light 

 to very dark brown, spotted and 

 blotched with various shades of brown, 

 blackiyh lilac and olive. The eggs of 

 the same set often show great variation 

 of color and marking, but have a nearly 

 uniform size and shape. In the set of 

 four mentioned above all are small, 

 and all have a ground color of brown, 

 no two of the same shade, spotted and 

 blotched with shades of brown and lilac. 

 The smallest egg of this set, which is 

 almost a runt, has the darkest brown 

 .ground color of any egg of this species 

 in our cabinet. 



Another set of two has a very odd 

 egg. The ground color which was of 

 the palest green, has faded almost to 

 white, and it is marked very sparingly 

 with large blotches of blackish brown, 

 giving it very much the appearance of 

 an egg of the Black Skimmer. The 

 other egg of the set is of normal color 

 and marking. 



We collected in all seventy-tive eggs; 

 nineteen sets of three, seven sets of two 

 and one set of four. We carefully 

 marked and rolled each set, as soon as 

 ■taken, and so had no broken or mixed 



eggs to sorrow over when we reached 

 home. 



After dinner at J. C's. we donned 

 hip-boots and waded among the reeds 

 whicn border a fresh pond near the 

 beach, in search of the nests of the 

 Long-billed Marsh Wren. After an 

 hours fruitless wading we were com- 

 pelled to give up, beaten by the Wrens. 

 When we reached the boat to return to 

 Providence, with one voice we agreed 

 to place June 23, as one of the most 

 pleasant of the many days we spent 

 collecting in the season of '95. 



John H. Flanagan, 

 Pi'ovidence. R. I. 



Two Interesting Birds of Tonawanda Swamp. 



The American Bittern is another in- 

 teresting bird to anyone who has stud- 

 ied their habits. These birds were 

 quite common hei'e last year, but were 

 a great deal commoner two or three 

 years ago. They arrive about the mid- 

 pie of April, if the season is good, and 

 nest from the first of May to the latter 

 part of June. 



Every morning long before the 

 sun rises, during their mating and 

 breeding season, one may hear their 

 peculiar cry which sounds like a mallet 

 striking a stako and procures them the 

 name -'stake-drivers" by which they 

 are commonly called. They are very 

 shy, especially in their breeding 

 grounds, where they sit in the tall 

 grass and are seldom seen. Their nests 

 are very hard to find if one does not 

 know how to look for them as I know 

 by experience, but I have spent many 

 unsuccessful and weary hours looking 

 for them before I discovered the secret 

 of finding them. One day as I was walk- 

 ing across a large marsh of about two 

 thousand acres I accidentally came up- 

 on an old Bittern sitting on her nest. 

 As they will not leave their nests until 

 they know you see them and sometimes 

 not then, I was obliged to raise Mrs. 



