36 



THE OOLOGIST 



and when I had been ni) in the tree :i 

 few minutes the late afternoon sun 

 blazed out in full force and shining on 

 the Immaculate white of the birds 

 showing against the dark green of the 

 dense Cypress trees, made a picture 

 no one could fully describe. How I 

 wished for my camera that I had left 

 in cam]). There is no telling what I 

 would have given to have had it for V2 

 hour. I stayed around this vicinity 

 for five days but it rained some all 

 the time and 1 never had a chance to 

 get a single picture. However it is as 

 well as they would of been in the bot- 

 tom of the canal with the balance of 

 the plates. It was while up in this 

 rookery I located a nest of Ivory Billed 

 Wood-peckers. I had located the male 

 bird on my arrival and he stayed 

 around all evening. The hole was 

 placed in a live cypress above a large 

 limb and could not be seen from the 

 ground and when I spied the new hole 

 about 90 feet up, all thoughts of the 

 Wood Ibis was abandoned for the 

 time and I made a record, I am sure, 

 coming down the tree I was in and 

 going up to the Ivory Billed hole, felt 

 sure the female was in the hole and 

 was sure put out when I found that 

 it was an uncompleted hole. I search- 

 ed good the next five days I stayed 

 here and never saw another hole or 

 anything of the female bird so judged 

 some one had shot her as the pair 

 were seen here earlier in the Spring 

 by the guide and that was the real 

 reason I was here. However from his 

 fondnes for this location I have hopes 

 he will find a mate by 1912, and give 

 me an opportunity to study and photo- 

 graph this almost extinct bird. 



Late one evening while hunting for 

 Sand Hill Cranes nests I came across 

 one in a bunch of flaggs in a small 

 pond on a prairie. It was drizzling 

 rain and the old bird never left the 

 nest until I was within 30 feet of her. 



I felt at once she had young just 

 hatched or pipped eggs as at no other 

 time could one get within 100 feet of 

 them. She had one egg that contained 

 a noisy youngster but was not pipped. 

 As I wanted a young crane I decided 

 to take the egg with me and if it 

 hatched alright and if it died in shell 

 I would save the shell anyway. After 

 3 hours I reached camp which was in 

 an old cabin launch not in commission, 

 that I used during the nasty weather. 

 After supper the youngster in the shell 

 seemed livelier than when first found 

 and as I had no way of keeping egg 

 warm, took egg to bed with me and 

 held it in my hand up against my body 

 all night. Some time near morning I 

 was awakened by the crane pipping 

 out and he made such an effort that 

 the egg rolled out of the blankets and 

 I was sure startled at first, thinking 

 it was a snake. While I was a suc- 

 cessful "incubator" I did not make out 

 so well as a "brooder" and the young 

 crane only lived 5 days, but it was so 

 cold and rainy and having no way to 

 keep it warm, he had no chance at all. 

 The episode of the crane furnished lots 

 of amusement to the few settlers in 

 this region. 



Cranes are an interesting bird. 

 Their bugle like notes are heard 

 further than birds can be seen. They 

 fly in undulating curved line and each 

 croaks in turn. I had a friend who 

 hatched a few eggs and raised the 

 young and he said they fed on Grass- 

 hoi)))ers, worms, frogs and snakes. 

 Think it was an "off" year on nesting 

 as ponds on prairies were so low there 

 were few available nesting places and 

 saw hundreds of birds flying in pairs 

 all the time. Before daylight one 

 morning I left camp for turkey roost 

 but failed to find any turkeys. I was 

 just emerging from a hammock on the 

 Prairie when ;ibout % of a mile away 

 I heard the rolling calls of the Sand- 



