82 



THE OOLOGIST. 



resemble the sound of pounding with a 

 heavy maul. These notes are also very 

 deceiving as to their source, and yet 

 are so marked in their resemblance to 

 the sounds produced by driving a post, 

 that we look about to see the man en- 

 gaged in building a fence near. When 

 an amateur is told that the sound is 

 produced by a bird, the Stake-driver, 

 he is not surprised at the name adopted. 



I believe the notes plum pjicrn are 

 the love ditty and think they are mostly 

 used in spring; yet I have heard them 

 in the autumn as late as October 15th. 

 There is another name for this bird, 

 which, with the general name of Shite- 

 poke, applied to Herons and Bitterns 

 ^s a whole, makes the Greater Bittern 

 a species of many names. I refer to 

 the cognomen Barrel-maker, given un- 

 doubtedly because of the similarity of 

 its ka socle notes to the thumping noises 

 made by a cooper in hooping his bar- 

 rels. * 



I once slept on the prairie in the 

 early part of May in Illinois. It turn- 

 ed out that I was surrounded by a lot 

 of sloughs inhabited by an army of 

 Barrel-makers. It was a good night 

 for night llyei's and the way the Snipe, 

 Sandpipers and other smaller waders 

 flew about my camp-fire was a caution. 

 All night long the continuous shrill cry 

 of the frogs in the bog, together with 

 noise of towering Snipe and many oth- 

 er odd sounds, and from unknown 

 sources, kept pace with the clatter of 

 the so-called Barrel-makers in the 

 marsh near by. This was the time I 

 learned why this bird is called Barrel - 

 maker. 



Some time in May, usually in the 

 early part, the Stake-driving, Barrel- 

 making, Thunder-pumping son of a 

 Plum Pudding, Indian Shitepoke builds 

 a nest,, and with the assistance of Mrs. 



* still other names are Bog-trotter and Bog- 

 bull. Oliver Davie says that it has a hoarse 

 gurgling cry of alarm. I have suddenly come 

 upon one when feeding and as it flew away 

 .startled it uttered some peculiar resounding 

 notes, but usually they are silent in flight. 



Shitepoke Plum Pudding proceeds to 

 rear a family. The nest is always on 

 an elevated situation and genei'ally 

 free from all chances of inundation. 

 Sometimes it is way off in the marsh 

 and again it is (juite easily accessable. 

 But wherever it is, it is always just 

 where we don't look for it. In other 

 words it is hard to find. A good col- 

 lector may hunt for years and not find 

 a nest, and then, when least expected, 

 run onto a fine set of eggs. A young 

 friend of mine found four sets in a 

 space of a few rods square and yet he 

 was not on the lookout for an egg. 

 However the species does not generally 

 build in rookeries, and is in fact less 

 disposed to be gregarious in nesting 

 season than any others of the Herons. 

 With an observer who has time and 

 inclination, it is not a difficult matter 

 to find a nest by watching the birds; 

 however the nests are rarities and good 

 sets of eggs grace but few collections 

 comparatively. 



The number of eggs is generally four 

 or five, and quite as often the former 

 number and sometimes only three. 

 Again I have heard of six but cannot 

 substantiate this set. 



The eggs are of a muddy color, diffi- 

 cult to describe, and I might call them 

 of a coffee color if I were to rely on 

 my opinion. Someone has said that 

 they ai'e of a brownish-drab or Isabella 

 color, and I guess the latter color de- 

 scribes them as the hue is peculiar and 

 unlike that of any other egg that I 

 know of. The eggs are nearly or quite 

 two inches long and about one and a 

 half in their smaller diameter, and are 

 usually nearly elliptical in shape. 



The nest is a rude structure of coarse 

 grass and rushes and of course quite 

 unlike the nests of any others of the 

 Herons. The young are curious little 

 bunches of down when first hatched, 

 but quickly lose their beauty when they 

 assume the naked appearance, or after 

 they get their pin-feathers. 



