July, 1892.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



103 



and upon visiting the nest in the afternoon of 

 tlie same day, I found a Cowbiid had deposited 

 an egg with the others. Tlie Warbler immedi- 

 ately began setting. The nest was left undis- 

 turbed for three days, wlien, concluding no 

 more eggs would be laid, I collected the set. 



Also on May 19, 1891, I found another 

 Chestnut-side's nest. She began laying May 

 22d and had deposited three eggs when a 

 Cowbird also laid one in the nest. .She then 

 began .setting, but I left the eggs until May 

 28th when as no more were laid I took them. 

 I could recite several other instances similar 

 to the above, of various species of birds, thus 

 proving that the depositing of the Cowbird's 

 eggs does prevent the real owner from 

 completing her set. 



I have in my collection a set of Oven Bird's 

 eggs smaller in number than any described by 

 Mr. Norris, it being a set of two without any 

 Cowbird' s eggs. The nest and eggs were 

 found May 31, 1884, but were left until June 

 5th for a larger set, without avail. Upon 

 blowing the eggs, I found that the owner had 

 been setting for at least one or two days before 

 I discovered the nest. It is the smallest set I 

 ever saw, the usual nest complement in 

 this locality being five eggs. They measure 

 .83 X .64 and .82 x 62. 



I collected a set of six eggs of the Yellow- 

 shafted Flicker, .June 9, 1892, which is 

 remarkable for the fact that it contains one 

 runt egg that is the nearest to a spherical egg 

 of any I have ever taken. It measures 

 .80 X.75. The otlier five measure respectively, 

 1.06 X. 87; 1.08 X. 88; l.lOx.88; l.lOx.88; 



1.16 X. 88. 



G. L. H. 

 Bethel, Conn. 



A Set of the King Rail. 



On June 1st, a colored man brought me four 

 fresh eggs of the King Rail from a nest he had 

 mown down in a meadow, which I reluctantly 

 took, more to encourage him than for any 

 other reason. On June 2d, he flushed the old 

 Rail from near the site of the old nest and se- 

 cured another egg and on June 3d he got the 

 sixth, again near the old nest. On June 5th, 

 another man found the same Rail and this time 

 she had one egg in the poorest apology for a nest 

 he had ever seen ; this in the low bushes and 

 briers on the edge of the meadow. The next 

 day she had built up the nest some more and 



had laid another egg and she kept on laying 

 one egg each day and building up her nest till 

 on June 9th she had five eggs in the nest 

 making eleven she had laid in all, the usual 

 number here I think. 



There was only one pair of Rails in this 

 meadow which was only an acre or two in 

 extent and there is no doubt that the old bird 

 simply kept on laying till she had completed 

 the set. C. S. Brimley. 



Raleigh, X. C. 



Nesting of the Virginia Rail (Rallus 

 virginianus). 



On June 21, 1892, 1 went out to a small 

 inland swamp several miles north of ^t. Clair 

 to see if I could collect some Blackbird eggs. 

 I found several nests of these and two fine sets 

 of Swamp Sparrows, but was rather dis- 

 appointed. I waded out to a large log thickly 

 covered with underbrush and crept along for 

 quite a way only to come face to face with a 

 large, black snake. It would have required a 

 good stop-watch to determine the seconds it 

 took me to get off that log and endeavor to 

 get a stick, but his snakeship didn't relish the 

 meeting any more than I did and quickly 

 swam away. Close by her were several 

 clumps of flags and out of one of these I 

 startled a bird. Stooping eagerly down I found 

 a nest full of eggs. It was a compactly built 

 nest, slightly hollowed and made of dead flags. 

 The eggs were ten in number, creamy white 

 dotted with fine specks of reddish and lilac- 

 brown, averaging 1.25x.96 in size. I soon 

 saw the bird and recognized it as the Virginia 

 Rail {liallns virginianus). The female would 

 not fly till almost stepped on and would then 

 fly quickly in a straight line and dive quickly 

 into the underbrush where she would rapidly 

 move away until out of sight. 



As I had never found any other but the 

 Common Sora and occasionally a King Rail's 

 n'St, I felt very much elated over my find. 

 The eggs were badly incubated, but after half 

 an hour's labor I succeeded in saving them. 



B. H. Swales. 



1220 Woodward ave., Detroit, Mich. 



Remember. — Our only place of business is at 

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