40 



THE YOUNG OOLOGIST 



animals is tlie chief substance of its struct- 

 ure. Tlie nest is generally placed at the 

 very end of the burrow. The eggs are 

 four to nine in number. 



I have found snakes and black spiders, 

 and once I found a large tarantula in their 

 holes. 



Once, to my surprise, I was digging in 

 a hole after the nest, and got about to the 

 end, when I saw something gray reaching 

 in my hand ; I found something very dif- 

 ferent from an owl, as instead of feathers 

 it had fur. I did not know what it was at 

 first, but reaching in my hand I happened 

 to catch it by the leg and pulled it out. It 

 proved to be a fine Cotton-ttiil. I soon 

 reached the end of the hole and found five 

 fat young owls and the parent at the far 

 end. The nest of this owl may be found 

 bj' the manure collected at the entrance to 

 the burrow. 



H. C. LiLLIE, 



Pleasures of a Florida Trip. 



As I have a few moments to spare. I 

 thought I would tell you a little of my ad- 

 ventures in collecting skins of birds in 

 Southern Florida. In the winter of '83, 

 just when the rush of trade was over, a 

 friend of mine, (Dr. Small) who is now at 

 Los Angeles, C'ah, says to me, "Let's go to 

 Florida for a few weeks, for some fun," so 

 I said yes and we started — this was my 

 third trip to Florida, but his Brst. We 

 bought tickets for Enterprise, and went 

 by steamer to Savannah and from there 

 to Jacksonville by cars, and then by the 

 Steamer John Sylvester up the St. John 

 river to Enterprise. Let me tell all col- 

 lectors to keep away from hotels if they 

 wish to have money in their pockets. 

 Having had a taste of this once, it was a 

 good lesson forme; we took our two large 

 trunks in which was all our stuff and guns, 

 and one folding canoe and a small tent; we 

 hired a mule for $'> a week, and went 

 about. 1 should ihink si.xty miles into Ihe 

 interior. We pitched our tent on the bank 

 of a small river called Snake Creek, and 

 well it deserved its name, for it was full 

 of water Adders of all kinds. 



About a week or ten days after we had 

 been there, a camping party of men from 

 New York came and pitched about a mile 

 above us. They were up there for tishing 

 more than gunning. One night when my 

 Pard went off to get some owls, which he 

 had heard the night before, these three men 

 came up to our tent to pass away the even- 

 ing, we were just commencing to enjoy a 

 good social game when in came my Pard, 

 mad as a wild bull, and said I was a nice 

 kind of a man to leave a log in front of the 

 dooi-. I told him I did not, so we all went 

 to see, and low and behold there was a. 

 large Alligator just crawling away. I 

 jumped into the tent and grabbed my forty- 

 four Winchester rifle, but was just in 

 time to see him go into the stream ; but we 

 killed nine on that very same river before 

 we left. Now people talk abo\it snakes in 

 Florida. Let me tell my young friends 

 that snakes will not trouble you if you will 

 not trouble them, for here is an instance : 

 One day I was after a flock of Paroquets, 

 and going on to a small field of wild rice, 

 and looking to one side of me I saw a 

 round ball as I thought, and went to go 

 over to it. liut was surprised to find it a 

 large Rattlesnake, (you bet I made tracks 

 out of its reach), and it did not notice me 

 more than to raise its head. I got my senses 

 pretty quick and let her have two barrels of 

 No. V-i shot of my faithful Hammerless. 

 When we skinned the snake we found twen 

 ty-one eggs in Uer. She had twenty-six rat- 

 tles, and is the fine.st snake I ever saw. We 

 left soon after and went home. We col- 

 lected in all over 400 eggs, and over 1,100 

 skins of various species. I will tell you 

 more ue.xt time. J. T. Jones. 



Flicker. 



Editor : — The Yellow-shafted Flicker is 

 known in this locality as Yellow Hammer. 

 One is building in a maple in the center of 

 our little city has hollowed its nest out of 

 the growing tree. L'ntil lately they seemed 

 to be rather scarce, but now their well- 

 know cr_v is heard in nearly every direc- 

 tion. One woke us up the other night by 

 drumming on the shingles, and kept us- 

 awake for nearly half an hour. 



Yours. A. S. A., Osceola, Iowa. 



