THE DSPREY 



121 



he fall asleep, nor does he wake until the dawn of 

 day, when rising to his feet he looks upward to the 

 skies. One by one the stars disappear. The moon 

 grows pale. He listens. Last night's "familiar roar" 

 rings in his ears. He now beholds swarming from 

 out the stpb the living breathing mass, forming in 

 funnel shape, revolving like a top, rising high in air, 

 then sweeping outward into a wide expanding ring, 

 until myriads of birds are scattered wide, like leaves 

 before the whirlwind 



When all are out of sight he speaks aloud in grati- 

 tude from out the depths of his admiring soul, "Au- 

 to-yo! mi-she mau-ni-to! (Oh! thou mighty God) 

 who in thy wisdom, for man's good, created the forest 

 and stream ; who iilled the air with birds, and their 

 mouths with song ; who planted the wilderness with 

 flowers, scenting their breath with rich perfume, so 

 long as I live I will guard and protect them, and 

 adore Thee"* 



*Many times in early life I was told that Chimney 

 Swallows wintered in hollow trees, which I regarded 

 unreasonable, and I continued to investigate the 

 matter until I was rewarded by being fully satisfied 

 that it was not true. I have watched several of these 

 trees, where they congregate in such vast numbers, 

 and find they are their roosting places, for large re- 

 gions, before nesting, as they return north in spring 

 time ; and that after they have reared the young they 



again congregate in them to roost in still greater 

 numbers. I have seen them enter on their return 

 north and have seen them leave these rousting trees as 

 they migrated south in September. At such times 

 they rise from the roosting tree as described in above 

 narrative, rising high in air forming in funnel shape, 

 finally assuming a spherical form ; then like a swarm 

 of bees that goes a long distance, they move with 

 great velocity, like a balloon before a heavy wind 



BLOWING INCUBATED EGGS. 



.ALBERT LANO, 



AS the season for the egg collector is at hand I 

 wish to give readers of The Osprev some- 

 thing new and also something good. It may 

 not be very new to some, but as I have not seen it in 

 print it may benefit at least some of you. I believe 

 in giving all the points and good things to my good 

 fellow students, for there are only a few of us com- 

 paratively speaking. 



It is the use of pancreati}7e in digesting the con- 

 tents of badly and far advanced incubated eggs. I 

 prefer fresh eggs, of course, but often one will get 

 hold of some rare species and to save the set entire is 

 usually the aim and desire of every collector. 



Proceed in this way : First get your incubated 

 egg. Drill the hole a little larger than if it were 

 fresh ; but not much. Stir up the contents with a 

 probe or some suitable instrument, and blow out all 

 the liquid. Now make a solution, taking a piece of 



AITKIN, MINN. 



pure pancreatine the size of a bean to a teaspoonful 

 of luke warm water ; not hot. With the aid of a bent 

 medicine dropper force some of this solution into the 

 egg and then set your specimen away, with the hole 

 up, for a day. Do not expect that the contents of 

 your specimen will smell sweetly at this stage of the 

 process. 



Before putting in the digestive feniwnt see that the 

 membrane in the hole is removed so that it does not 

 stop up the hole during the time that the digestion 

 takes place and thus break the shell, for the contents 

 will swell. If, after blowing the egg, all is not 

 digested, repeat the process. 



Caustic potash {potassiiiiii hydroxide) may also be 

 used instead of pancreatine, but is more dangerous 

 to the shells than the latter. Potash also destroys 

 the membrane of the shell which pancreatine does 

 not do. I prefer pancreatine. 



HUMMINGBIRDS AT SEA. 



THE following, taken from the San Francisco 

 Clironicle, is sent us by Prof. F Gruber, of 

 the Golden Gate Park Museum : 

 "Captain Wallace of the steamer Walla Walla 

 that arrived yesterday from Victoria, has a bird story 

 to tell, the truth of which is vouched for by every 

 passenger and officer on the vessel. 



"Between 4 and 5 o'clock Friday afternoon, when 

 off Cape Mendocino, hundreds of Hummingbirds set- 

 tled down upon the ship. The tiny visitors were 

 ravenously hungry and attacked officers and passen- 

 gers, boring their needle-like bills into the flesh. One 

 of the ladies on deck carried a bouquet, which the 

 birds attacked. Another lady, who had some bright 



artificial flowers in her hat was driven into her state- 

 room by the birds. Moistened sugar was brought 

 out and this the hungry visitors revelled in, eating it 

 out of the hands of the passengers. Yesterday morn- 

 ing when the Walla Walla was a short distance ofl 

 Point Reyes, those of the birds that had recovered 

 sufficiently flew ashore, but a number remained and 

 were carried off by the passengers. Captain Wallace 

 has three flying about his stateroom. The Walla 

 Walla was fifteen or sixteen miles oft' shore when the 

 birds settled on the ship The weather was very 

 foggy and the wind blowing off shore. The birds 

 probably lost their bearings and were carried sea- 

 ward." 



