THH OOLOGIST 



53 



The expedition left New York on 

 January 8th, 1913. The steamer stop- 

 ped first at Kingston, Jamaica. From 

 here we went direct to Colon and 

 thence to Puerto, Colombia, where 

 the expedition started inland. The 

 Magdalena river was ascended for 

 some four hundred miles, the towns of 

 Calaraa, Algodonal, Banco, Remolina, 

 Apon, Puerto Berrio and Honda being 

 visited on the trip. From Honda we 

 traveled by pack train to Consuelo, 

 4000 feet, Guaduas, 3400 feet, Villete 

 3000 feet ,and finally to Bogota which 

 is 880 feet above sea level. From 

 Bogota we went straight over the east- 

 ern Andes to Villavicencio over the 

 most exciting and dangerous trail any- 

 where in South America. This trail 

 actually hangs upon the sides of these 

 great mountains. On one side there 

 is almost a perpendicular rise for 

 hundreds of feet and on the other a 

 perpendicular drop for two or three 

 thousand more. The trail is often only 

 wide enough for one pack animal and 

 their disheartening habit of walking 

 on the outer edge causes some little 

 anxiety until one becomes accustom- 

 ed to the country and its great heights. 



From Villavicencio we traveled back 

 over this same trail to Bogota and 

 then set out in a new direction. Mon- 

 teradondo and Buenavista, so often 

 mentioned are on this trail. Fusugas- 

 uga was our next locality, this journey 

 being made on foot by the writer and 

 T. M. Ring a distance of 21 miles over 

 the mountains. Here we collected for 

 a few days and then worked our way 

 slowly back again over the same trail, 

 stopping at Aguadita, 6540 feet. El 

 Roble, 7850 feet, El Pinon 9550 feet, 

 and then to Bogota once more. From 

 here we traveled to the Magdalena 

 again and finally out to the coast, 

 reaching New York on May 9th, 1913, 

 with some three thousand birds and 

 animals, several of which have since 

 proved new to science. 



Notes on the Black-crowned Night 

 Herons Nest and Eggs. 



On April 16, 1912, in a small heronry 

 of the Black-crowned Night Herons 

 near Red Bank, Gloucester County, N. 

 ■J., I found a pair of these birds nest- 

 ing in an old 1909 Corvus brachyrhyn- 

 chos' nest in the midst of the colony. 

 'I'he nest was about 30 feet up in the 

 top of a scarlet oak and was quite flat 

 as the sides had fallen in and the 

 heron had laid a few twigs upon it and 

 deposited her two eggs, which the nest 

 then held, upon the flat structure. 



A rather small set of Heron's eggs 

 collected in this herony on April 16, 

 1912, measured 1.96x1.44, 1.90x1.43 

 inches and are of an oval shape. 



A set of four long, narrow eggs of 

 this species, collected in this herony 

 measured 2.34x1.23, 2.34x1.32, 2.33 

 X 1.32, 2.33x1.35 inches. 



We found two sets of three eggs 

 containing runts, one small egg in each 

 clutch, but as they are not in my col- 

 lection I cannot give the size of them. 



We found full sets of eggs, four and 

 five, in this herony, on April 17, 1909, 

 April 15, 1911, and April 16, 1912, and 

 yet there are some "closet naturalists" 

 who contend that this species does 

 not nest here until May, and insist 

 that the bird does not arrive in this 

 vicinity until the first or second week 

 in April, but our observation proves 

 otherwise. 



In this herony clutches of four eggs, 

 fresh in incubation, hatched in 21 

 days or three weeks, according to my 

 observation, for many nests containing 

 fresh sets on April 17, 1909, had hatch- 

 ed and were hatching on the follow- 

 ing May 9th, and the same thing hap- 

 pened in 1911, when clutches observed 

 on April 15th were hatched and hatch- 

 ing three weeks later on May 7th. Un- 

 fortunately for our 1912 confirmatory 

 observation upon the period of incuba- 

 tion of Nycticorax's eggs, the herony 



