THE YOUNG OOLOGIST. 



An Egg Collection Worth $9,000. 



The Executive committee of the Public 

 museum lield a meeting last evening, at 

 which a resolution of thanks to B. F. Goss, 

 of Pewaukee, for the presentation of a very 

 choice collectton of eggs of North Ameri- 

 can birds was vmanimously adopted. The 

 collection embraces the eggs of 46.5 species 

 of birds. It has taken Mr. Goss nine years 

 to make the collection and has cost about 

 $9,000. Mr. Goss delivered the collection 

 to the museum and put it in place himself 

 and at his own expense. It will be opened 

 to public inspection at once. — Milwaukee 

 Sentiiul. 



Notes on the Cuckoos. 



July 13th, 1«83, found a Black-billed 

 Cuckoo's nest in a low pine tree ; the bird 

 was on the uest and would not move until 

 my hand was almost on it, then, ruffling its 

 feathers, it left the nest and flew directly at 

 my eyes, and then retreated to a neighbor- 

 ing tree, where it watched me as 1 exam- 

 ined the nest. Finding only two eggs in 

 the nest I left them and when I returned on 

 Monday,— three days later,— the nest con- : 

 talned three eggs : still thinking that the 

 bird had not yet completed the clutch, I 1 

 selected the freshest eggjand left the other i 

 two. On the following Monday I found ] 

 the nest to hold an addition of two Yellow- 

 billed Cuckoo's eggs. This is my way of 

 explaining it : On my ^second visit to the 

 nest I handled the three eggs to tind the 

 freshest ; the bird, on its return, noticed 

 this and abandoned the nest. Through the 

 week a Yellow-billed Cuckoo found the 

 nest ; being burdened with eggs, pi-ompted 

 with the same instinct as the European 

 Cuckoo, and the nest having no occupant, 

 it depositetl its two eggs. I turned the set 

 over to a prominent ornithologist, who con- 

 sidered the occurrence as very remarkable. 

 Have any of the readers of the Y'ditng 

 OoLOGiST ever found Cuckoo's eggs in 

 other than their own nests '! 



The tirst Yellow-billed Cuckoo's nest 

 that 1 ever found, contained two eggs ; I 

 took only one, hoping that more would be 



added to the other. On my return I found 

 bits of the shell lying under the nest and 

 have no doubt but that the bird itself de- 

 stroyed the egg. 



On the ITth of August, 1884, I was 

 rambling through the woods when I met 

 a friend who told me of a Cuckoo's nest 

 which he had passed. I soon hunted it up 

 and found it to contain two fresh eggs ; it 

 was situated in a small tree in the midst of 

 a thicket and was about twelve feet from 

 the ground. While I was at the nest one 

 of the birds arrived with a bit of dried leaf 

 in its bill, which proves that the female be- 

 gan to deposit her eggs before the nest was 

 completed. This is my latest date of find- 

 ing a nest with fresh eggs. 



H. K. Jamison, 



Manayunk. Pa. 



Notes From California. 



On April 4lh, I tooli my first nest for 

 1885. It was that of the Western Rest- 

 tail Hawk {Buteo horealk calurus.) 



The nest was built in a redwood tree, fifty 

 feet from the ground. It was composed of 

 large and .small sticks, and lined with moss, 

 straw and feathers. The eggs, two in 

 number, were dull whittish, with a few- 

 pale markings, and Pleasured 3.27 by 1.75. 



The nest was found two miles from 

 Santa Cruz, overlooking the bay of Mon- 

 terey. 



April 6th I found a nest with five young 

 ones of the Western Meadow Lark. The 

 young were about a week old. 



April 7th I found, live miles from Ber- 

 keley, Cal., the nest of the Great Western 

 Horned Owl. The nest was a last years' 

 one, of the Western Red tailed Hawk, but 

 the Owls had made it their home this year. 

 When I found it there was only one young 

 owl in it, but I found out afterwards, that 

 this nest was found on the 27th of March, 

 it then had three young owls about three 

 weeks old. Not far from the Owl's nest I 

 found a nest and three eggs of the Western 

 Red-tailed Hawk, in on oak tree, fifty feet 

 from the ground, composed of moss, iiay 

 and sticks. In the same tree was a nest 



