January, 1S93.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



wliile fresh for his cabinet and the other 

 six hatclied : but about tiie time the Goose 

 was sitting Mr. Briggs died, and in set- 

 tling the estate and when these gosUngs 

 were about lialf grown, they were all 

 shipped together, twelve in number, to 

 M. L. Rice, of Utica, Michigan, who, by 

 agreement with Mr. Briggs, held a first 

 claim on them. The young goslings never 

 required any feeding but picked their own 

 living with the old Geese. We hope to 

 hear more about Mr. Rice's success with 

 them in the future ; but this article in- 

 cludes all of their history up to the present 

 date. Janus B. P/irdy. 



Plymouth, Wayne Co., Michigan. 



Nesting of the Cerulean Warbler. 



How well do I remember fnuling my 

 first Ceridean Warblers' nest. 



It came about in this manner : One 

 pleasant day in May, 1S90, while out col- 

 lecting skins at Greenwood, a suburb of 

 St. Louis, on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, 

 and about one half mile from my home, 

 and while prying around in a smalJ but 

 beautiful piece of forest through which 

 winds a small creek which goes by the 

 name of the river Des Perces, pronounced 

 De Pere, I spied a small bird flitting 

 about in a tall but slender sycamore. On 

 first appearance I took the tiny bird to be 

 a Vireo of some species, and sat down to 

 watch its movements for awhile before 

 shooting. Finally it disappeared, and I 

 had just begun to be ^'exed at such stupid- 

 ity in allowing the bird to escape, when 

 it made its appearance again, and with, I 

 thought, something in its mouth ; but at 

 such a great height I was not sure, so I 

 decided to wait awhile, and was rewarded 

 with unmistakable signs of nest building. 

 As I could see nothing of the nest, I con- 

 cluded that the nest must be just begun, 

 and so I left, intending to visit the tree 

 again in about a week ; but it was ten 



days before I again visited the locality, 

 and with a good glass I scanned each and 

 every branch but no hanging nest ; but on 

 a horizontal limb about sixty-five feet up 

 and about twelve feet from the trunk, and 

 where the limb forked out, I thought I 

 noticed an undue bulging of the limb and 

 decided to investigate ; so after consider- 

 able hard work in the way of shinning I 

 reached the suspicious limb, and wav out 

 on the end I spied a tiny nest containing 

 two eggs, but no bird in sight, nor did it 

 show up. Not being prepared to secure 

 the nest, and wishing a full set, I left. 



Four days later I returned with a long 

 clothes-line, a chalk line, large jack-knife 

 and some cotton, also a younger brother 

 to help. After another hard shin, I reached 

 the blanch and begun operations by first 

 wrapping and tying one end of the clothes- 

 line around the limb containing the nest 

 and about twenty inches from the trunk ; 

 I next passed the line over a limb just 

 above the one holding the nest, bringing 

 the line down and securing to the lower 

 limb ; ni)' next move was to fasten a line 

 to the fork containing the nest; much 

 easier said than done, but I finally landed 

 a chalk line with a weight attached in the 

 right place, and lowering the same to the 

 ground my brother attached a short line, 

 which I was about to draw up in position 

 when I thought to myself, How will I tie 

 it away out there.' But, no sooner said 

 than done, I had my brother tie a good 

 stout stick about a foot long to the end, 

 and climbing higher up I hauled the rope 

 up and secured it to the limb above; thus 

 I had the limb so it could not fall or turn 

 over after it was cut. I almost forgot to 

 say that all this rumpus proved too much 

 for the bird, who up to the time I threw 

 the chalk line over the limb a couple of 

 inches from her had remained on the nest. 

 She now left the nest, hopping all round 

 it and continually pecking at the chalk 

 line and scolding like a Wren or Vireo. 



