134 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 17-N0. 9 



sets of four each of Purple Finch, one 

 runt egg, full smaller than the Hummer. 



June S. A set of four Hooded and a 

 set of three Chestnut-sided Warbler. 



I liad to do some hard climbing and a 

 great deal of walking to accomplish this. 

 A. E. Kibbc. 



Mayville, N.Y. 



A Few Notes on the Gallinules in 

 North Carolina. 



On June 11, 1S92, a man who brought 

 me some eggs of the King Rail told me 

 about another larger kind of Swamp 

 Chicken he had seen two years previously, 

 whilst working in some brickyards near 

 here. They were larger and had a bright 

 red comb, and were mostly bright red in 

 color he said ; they stayed about the brick- 

 yards some time, and raised a brood of 

 young which were black in color and 

 about two dozen in number. The men 

 killed the rooster he said by " chunking" 

 rocks at it, but he thought the rest sur- 

 vived. 



Divested of exaggeration and reduced to 

 cold facts I thought this might be an in- 

 stance of one of the Gallenules nesting 

 here ; so I brought him a Florida Galle- 

 nule in the meat, which was then in the 

 house, and asked him if that was one of 

 the Swamp Chickens he referred to ; he 

 said it was exactly like it, except in color, 

 the bird he had seen was red and had a 

 larger comb he thought he also thought 

 it was somewhat larger, otherwise there 

 was no difterence between the two. 



There would seem to be little doubt, 

 then, of this being an instance of the breed- 

 ing of the Purple Gallenule here. 



The only record of the Purple Galle- 

 nule at Raleigh is one taken June 6, 1SS7, 

 but I have had the bird described to me 

 several times by people who had killed 

 one at some previous time. 



The Florida Gallenule above mentioned 

 was found by a gentleman in his yard one 



morning after a rain, about June 6, in 

 Bertie County near Windsor. 



C. S. Brhiilcy. 



A Life Risk for Eggs. 



" I have my little ' fad' as well as other 

 people," said a prosperous, fat and jolly 

 commission merchant the other day, "but 

 1 dare say you would guess a long time 

 without hitting on it, so I will confess it 

 without putting you to the trouble. It is 

 my collection of birds' eggs. The making 

 of that collection gave me many hours of 

 rare sport when I was an adventurous 

 young fellow and had none of this load of 

 fat to carry about, and the chief use of it 

 now is to recall pleasant memories of those 

 days that will never come again. When 

 you're old you'll know how that is your- 

 self," and the old gentleman took a strong 

 pull at his cigar and let the smoke out in 

 a long and noisy sigh. 



" I was a traveler in those days for a big 

 export house which was pushing into 

 Mexico and South America for trade, and 

 so it came about that most of my eggs are 

 those of birds of those countries. Tell you 

 about some of them } Don't mind if I do. 

 Well, for want of knowing which one to 

 pick on, I'll tell you how I came to cap- 

 ture the biggest though not the rarest one 

 in the collection. It is a Vulture's ^^%' I 

 was in Mexico when I got that e^<g^^ and I 

 thought once or twice while I was secur- 

 ing it that I would never get out of Mex- 

 ico again. 



" Vultures are shy of mankind, and their 

 nests are exceedingly hard to find, and so 

 when I met a hunter who knew where one 

 was I hired him, with a couple of assist- 

 ants, to show me it and help me get the 

 eggs. We arrived at the spot about noon, 

 and I almost wished I had not come. The 

 guide pointed out to me a precipitous and 

 beetling cliff, which looked to me to be 

 about =;oo feet high, overhanging a deep 

 lake. About 100 feet from the top of the 



