THE OSPREY. 



this moss tract, intent on man^- thing-s — 

 but never dreaminjif that I should find the 

 breetlinj^ places of my Terns. 



The Yellow-heads, aixnit to build, were 

 noisily solicitous, everywhere, and very 

 busy. The habitants of the Nig-ht Ilertm- 

 rv < which covered ten acres or more anion »^ 

 tile canes), were hawking- overhead and 

 all about, from their nests and hidin*^- 

 places. A spur of the heronry, which lay 

 several hundred yards to the southwest, 

 abutted into the area of which 1 am speak- 

 in«>;-. This spur consisted of a very nar- 

 row ridiife (say ten feet wide, ) of hijjfher 

 marsh, a reefy remnant, perhaps, of a 

 once extensive cane-bo<4" lon<4- since <j;Tound 

 away by ice-floes in the Sprinj^-. A line 

 of heron nests extended up the canes ( or 

 reeds ) that formed this "ridg-e," and these 

 I had been examining". Reaching the ex 

 tremity I turned aside into the deeper wa- 

 ter and the coarse marsh g-rass. Finding- 

 that the water was reaching uncomforta- 

 bly near my hip-boot tops, I beg-an to look 

 anxiously about for firmer bog-s, when my 

 sig-ht rested upon an old decayed muskrat 

 "house," perhaps a mere eating--place, in 

 a fairly larg-e open expanse of water. 

 Eg-g-s, i saw, surmounted it. Eagerly I 

 pressed forward, the oozy water trickling, 

 unheeded, into my boots. Instantly I 

 stood beside a "nest" and eg"g"s never seen 

 before, concerning- which my notebook 

 says: 



"5-3 — Forster's Tern, three eg-g-s; well 

 beg-un; flat muskrat house, eig-ht inches 

 above water. Hollow; six inches in diam- 

 eter, lined with two-inch bits of rushes." 



From where I stood I saw another nest, 

 whose record is: "6-3 — As above; well 

 begun. Hut large [muskrat] house, two 

 feet high." 



A careful search revealed no more nests, 

 whatever, anywhere in the vicinity. But 

 on the loth of June, in a spot some little 

 distance from the above, where the rat 

 houses were larg-er and more abundant, I 

 stumbled onto a little colony. There were 

 six nests bearing- takeable sets. Each 

 contained three eg-g-s, incubation invaria- 

 bly advanced. Besides these, there were 

 many other nests with eggs in which in- 

 cubation was tot) far advanced for scienti- 

 fic i)urposes. On the small houses but a 

 single nest was usually found; while the 

 larg-e ones bore often two and sometimes 

 three "nests." 1 use quotati<m marks ad- 

 visedl}", for most of these eg-g--receptacles 



were nests only in name. Unlike the he- 

 rons, r)f whom all are industrious, and 

 most of them skillful, 7'cnui luirs^tcri is 

 in the main, when it comes to nidification, 

 a slovenly bird. In most cases, there is 

 but a slig-ht scratching- away of the rush- 

 fragments and wads of marsh-])lant, and 

 the f(»rining of a hollow averaging about 

 four by one-and-a-half inches. In char- 

 itable (lualiliiation of the above ei)ithet of 

 sloven^ one oug-ht tosav that this lack of 

 thrift and neatness may l)e due rather to the 

 frequent spoiliation and consequent and 

 subse<|uent haste than to constitutional 

 laziness, l^vidently, the Tern has many 

 foes. The rVanklin's (iull is his arch- 

 enemy; the muskrat and the mink un- 

 doubtedly do away with many egg-s, while 

 the character of this Tern, himself, inclines 

 me to think that he occasionally plays the 

 cannibal. 



[To BE Continued.] 

 The Sociability of Birds. 



BY O. WIDiMANN, OLD OKCHAKD, MO. 



BIRDS are naturally sociable; they 

 like the company of each other; 

 individuals of the same species con- 

 g-reg-ate into troops and flocks and, as a 

 rule, they are also disposed to associate 

 with other species of the same family; 

 even birds of diff^erent families but with 

 similar habits are regular companions. 

 In times when birds seem scarce we know 

 that where we hear one bird we are sure 

 to find a score and possibly a hundred, of 

 a dozen different species, if not families. 

 This state of companionship is most ob- 

 vious in winter, when the same company 

 spends weeks and months tog-ether, mak- 

 ing- tog-ether the rounds of the district, 

 seeking shelter together against the in- 

 clemency of the cold waves, and frol ic- 

 ing- together when they have passed away. 

 This sociability performs also an im- 

 portant part in their migrations. We see 

 certain species, some of widely separated 

 families, wander tog-ether, and we see the 

 early arrivals of a transient species in the 

 company of (me, the later individuals in 

 compimyof another, species. It is well- 

 known that the dilTerent sjiecies of 

 Thrushes, of Warblers, of Sparrows, of 

 Swallows and Blackbirds, are always 

 more or less mixed when mig-rating-, and 

 it has occurred that a party of less than a 



