150 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol 7-No. 10 



ally a floek rises, and mounting high into 

 the air, flies over the island to the east^ 

 ward. These are going North, and al- 

 though the weather be very severe thej' 

 will not return until the following Oct. or 

 Nov. The feeding grounds of the Brant 

 are few and far between ; as near as I can 

 learn, they make but one or two stops be- 

 tween North Carolina and the Cape. The 

 next is off Prince Edwards Island. Thence 

 they continue their flight, and Kane at the 

 far North saw them going still farther. 

 Their nests are as yet undiscovered. The 

 slightly winged birds are caught and kept 

 for decoys. They soon take to eating 

 corn, and often live many years in confine- 

 ment. When well taught they seem to 

 understand for what they are kept, and at 

 the word ran into the basket in which they 

 are carried. — Fred. T. Jencks. Prov., R. I. 



Prairie Hen — Its Nesting Habits. 



In this locality the Prairie Hen ( Ctipkl- 

 onia ciipido) commences la\-ing the latter 

 part of April. On May 6th, this year, I 

 took two full sets of eggs consisting of 

 thirteen and fifteen i-esj^eetively. The 

 number of eggs laid by a single bird va- 

 ries greatly. Nests containing all the way 

 from eleven to twenty-one. I have seen 

 two nests this year containing twenty-one 

 eggs each, and one containing eighteen. A 

 friend of mine reported finding one with 

 twenty-four. Out of a large number of 

 nests examined by me foiu'teen is the av- 

 erage number. I have never measured the 

 eggs, but they are small for the size of the 

 bird, being about the size of the common 

 crow. They are of a light brown color and 

 sometimes the first two or three eggs laid 

 are marked with small, very dark brown 

 spots. One set of thirteen in my collec- 

 tion is all beautifully marked in this way. 

 Another set of eleven is almost pure white. 

 The nest is always placed on the ground. 

 A cavity is hollowed out about three in- 

 ches in deptli and the bottom is covered 

 with dry grass. Their favorite place of 



nesting is in the prairie grass, which af- 

 fords an excellent place of concealment. I 

 have sometimes foiind their nests on Fall 

 plowing and in corn fields. The birds are 

 very tame during the breeding season and 

 will sit on the nest allowing a person to 

 approach vrithin a few feet before leaving 

 the nest, when as many others do, they 

 will pretend to be crippled for the purpose 

 of alluring the intruder from their nest. 

 They will even allow themselves to be cap- 

 tured on the nest, when they will fight 

 with fury. 



One of the most destructive agents to 

 the nests of these valuable birds is the 

 I^rairie fires. Most of the stockmen do not 

 burn their hay ground untO the middle of 

 May, and so thousands of eggs perish every 

 year. In passing over one of these burned 

 fields I counted five nests containing sev- 

 enty-eight eggs, on about one acre of 

 ground. The female in two instances was 

 sitting a few feet from her nest on the 

 ground. The period of incubation is 

 twenty-one days. Prairie fires also destroy 

 large numbers of eggs of the Mountain Plo- 

 ver and Meadow Lark, which also breed 

 here in large numbers. — Horace A. Kline, 

 Vesta, Johnson Co., Nebraska. 



Field Glass. 



Having studied birds more or less for 

 several years with the aid of a field or ma- 

 rine glass, I propose in a series of short 

 articles to give my experience in using the 

 same. Having never been a collector I 

 shall have nothing to say on this point. 

 The most that I can hope to do will be to 

 suggest a pleasant and easy way for be- 

 ginners to become acquainted with most 

 of the birds to be seen during any season, 

 and to map out a course of study, which 

 if somewhat out of the beaten rut, will be 

 found quite as pleasant as instructive. 



People who have no wish, strictly speak- 

 ing, to become ornithologists or oologists, 

 do desire sometimes to become better ac- 

 quainted with our resident birds. To do 



