THE OOLOGIST. 



13 



will be sent post-paid to any address for 

 only $1.00, or with The Oologist one 

 year for $1.25. Any person obtaining a 

 copy of us that is not more than pleased 

 with his purchase can return the book in 

 good condition and we will refund the 

 amount paid with 25 cents additional to 

 defray expenses. To show our readers 

 more full}' its value and tiie greater amount 

 of information given in this than the first 

 edition, we give the first few descriptions 

 in the new work : 



"1. Wood Thrush — Hylocichla mus- 

 TEijNA. Color, uniform deep blue, re- 

 sembling the eggs of the Robin, but smaller. 

 The number laid is usually four, and the 

 average size is 1. by .75. The nest is built 

 in low trees or bushes, and composed of 

 leaves and grasses with a laj^er of mud; on 

 this there is a lining of vegetable fibres. 

 The bird is found chiefly in low, damp 

 woods and in thickets. Breeds throughout 

 every portion of United States between the 

 jVIississippi River and the Atlantic, as far 

 as Georgia on the south and Massachusetts 

 on the north. Habitat: United States east 

 of Missouri plains, south to Guatemala. 



2. Wilson's Thrush — Hylocichla ftjs- 

 CESCENS. Bluish-green, unspotted: four or 

 five in number and average .87 by .63. 

 The nest is usually placed on the ground or 

 near it at the foot of a bush or tussock. It 

 is composed of a mass of weeds, grasses, 

 leaves and bark, lined with fine roots and 

 hair. The nest and eggs are not distin- 

 guishable with certainty from those of the 

 Hermit Thrush. The Wilson's or Tawu}' 

 Thrush breeds as far south as Pensylvania 

 and Ohio and as far west as Uiah and 

 occurs in the breeding season throughout 

 Maine, New Brunswick, Xova Scotia and 

 Canada. Habitat: Eastern North America, 

 Colorado, Utah. » 



3. Gray Cheeked Thrush — Hylocichla 

 ALICIA. Deep-green, marked with spots 

 of yellowish and russet brown. The eggs 

 are usually four in number, and average 

 .92 by .64. Nest, generally placed in low 

 trees and made of dry grasses, strips of fine 

 bark and decayed leaves, lined with finer 

 fibrous material. Alice's Thrush is another 

 name for this bird. Breeds in immense 

 numbers between the mouths of the Mac- 

 kenzie and Coppermine. Habitat: Eastern 

 North America to shores of Arctic Ocean, 

 and along the north coast from Labrador 

 to Kodiak, west to Fort Yukon and Mis- 

 souri River States. 



'da. Bicknell's Thrush — Hylocichla 

 ALiCLE BiCKNELLi. The Rcv. J. H. Laug- 

 ille in the Auk for July, 1884, gives a de- 



scription of the nidification of this Thrush 

 recently identified in the Catskill and 

 White Mountains and named in honor of 

 its discoverer. He found them breeding 

 on Mud and Seal Islands, off the coast of 

 Nova Scotia, westward from the city of 

 Yarmouth. The nests were all nearly 

 alike in location, structure and materials; 

 placed a few feet from the ground, against 

 the trunk of an evergreen tree. They were 

 composed of various kinds of mosses, a 

 few fine sticks, weed-stems and rootlets 

 and were lined with fine bleached grasses. 

 The nest was as green as a bunch of fresh 

 moss. The eggs were of a light bluish- 

 gree:i speckled with brown; size .87bj^.63." 



A Water Blow-Pipe. 



1 have no doubt but that many of our 

 readers of The Oologist, after a hard 

 days march collecting eggs, feel pretty 

 tired before they get even half through 

 blowing their eggs, and wish, from the 

 bottom of their watch-pocket that there 

 was a safe way to blow eggs by steam or 

 any other power. The way I am going to 

 tell you now, I have used with perfect 

 success for two or thi ee years, and I made 

 it at the cost of 50 cents. All you need to 

 make it is an empty tin can, holding about 

 2 quarts, one which has had apples in it I 

 am using, about 10 feet of j^ rubber 

 tubing, some glass tubing that will fit 

 tight in the rubber pipe, and some string. 

 The first thing to do is to clean the can 

 thoroughly, then with a sharp pointed awl 

 make a hole about i inch from the bottom 

 of the can a little smaller than the pipe, so 

 that you have to pinch and squeeze the pipe 

 to get it in ; then make the glass tubing 

 into bhnv pipes not more than two inches 

 long, and of different sizes. To go to 

 work, introduce the rubber tube into the 

 hole in the can, and in the other end of the 

 tube put one of the blow pipes. Take a 

 small ring of any kind, about i inch in 

 diameter, and then by bending over the 

 end of the tube near the blow pipe put the 

 ring over it to keep the water from going 

 through when not in operation. Fill the 

 can about one-half full of good clean 

 water, and put the can on a book case 

 about 10 feet from the floor. By this 

 simple arrangement we have a blow pipe 

 which does not take a bit of trouble to 

 blow any number of eggs, and there is 

 plenty of force to blow any e^g. The 

 same time the egg is being blown, it is 

 being rinsed, and all you have to do is to 

 blow the water out when it is blown. 

 Jas. ]\[. Andrews, 

 Saratoga Springs, N. Y, 



