32 



THE OOLOGIST 



hawk and removed the egg from the 

 bird and brought it to me. The egg 

 is about the size of a Sparrow Hawk's 

 egg, of a pale green color, about the 

 color of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo's egg, 

 with about a dozen pin point brown- 

 ish marks. 



When the egg was brought to me i 

 could not name it, so asked the party 

 to take me to the hawk. We went, but 

 outside of a few feathers, there was 

 nothing to be seen. Something had 

 made away with the carcass. 



Near where the bird was shot was a 

 nest in a small pine tree that I ex- 

 amined, and think it was an unused 

 Sharp-shinned Hawk's nest. 



Now the question arises, do eggs 

 change shape or size after the shell 

 is formed, and at what stage of the 

 game do they take on the markings? 



I neglected to state that it was ten 

 days after the bird was shot that I 

 knew about it. C. E. Van Alstine, 



Burning Springs, W. Va. 



Two Months in the Everglades. 



Part 11. Continued from Vol. XXX, 

 Page 294. 



On this trip I made my first ac- 

 quaintance with the Florida Burrow- 

 ing Owl. This hai)pened out on what 

 is known as the Big Prairie. These 

 cunning little polite fellows are sure 

 a sight and deserve more and better 

 protection than they receive. Because 

 of their holes in the prairie tripping 

 up the ponies of the Cow hunters, 

 these men never let an opportun- 

 ity pass to kill a ground Owl. They 

 nest in colonies of a couple of pairs 

 to a dozen or more, although I was 

 not fortunate in finding more than four 

 pairs in any colony, this is due to 

 many reasons. These owls seem to 

 dislike settlers and will move away at 

 once if anyone builds near them, also 

 many are killed by Pollcats and I dug 

 out in one day burrows of 12 Owls 



that showed by fresh tracks they were 

 occupied, and found in each a PolUat 

 but no Owls, no doubt in my mind but 

 that the Cat had surprised both birds 

 in the hole and devoured them. I 

 killed the Cats. 



These "Kitties" seem to be some- 

 what different species of Skunk. Bur- 

 rowing Owls dig a burrow form 6 to 10 

 feet in length and have an enlarged 

 chamber at end and eggs are laid on 

 dry cow dung and sets I found were 

 from 4 to 6 and incubation was start- 

 ed. 1 expect to spend some time in 

 1912 photographing and studying these 

 owls as believe it is only a question of 

 a very few years when the Florida 

 Burrowing Owl will be no more. 



Late in March I visited a large rook- 

 ery of Wood Ibis. I had left my canoe 

 as far up a creek as I could go and 

 with a guide tramped through ham- 

 mock and prairie to a cypress where 

 they nested. When in i^ mile of the 

 place knew it was too late to get eggs 

 as the young could be heard at this 

 distance uttering their continual 

 grunting noise. This rookery contain- 

 ed over .500 occupied nests and nests 

 were from 90 to 100 feet up in the tall 

 cypress and each tree contained from 

 4 to 20 nests. In some instances as 

 many as 4 nests were on one limb and 

 would touch one another. I learned 

 that Wood Ibris were very gentle and 

 not given to quarreling. I i)icked out 

 the tallest tree and climbed up so I 

 could get a view over the rookery and 

 it was a sight I'll never forget. Each 

 nest contained young Ibis about (he 

 size of grown leghorn chickens, pure 

 white with a heavy yellow bill and 

 after the first start of suri)rise at see- 

 ing me the youngsters paid no more 

 attention to me than if I were one of 

 them. The old ones came and fed as 

 near as 30 feet to me. It was raining 

 when I left camp and had stopped 

 about time we reached the rookery 



