70 



THE OOLOGIST. 



swamp, whfu I saw the nt'st. It was 

 fastened to the surrouuding nislies and 

 rontained seven eggs. I llush«'d and 

 .shot the female elose to it. Tlie eggs 

 were ereamy Iji-own thickly si)otted 

 with brown. 



The American Coot breeds here quite 

 extensively. I have often found their 

 nests when looking for those of the 

 Pied-billed Grebe. 



The eggs ranging from six to fourteen 

 in nnmlier, are laid in a shallow nest of 

 rushes, which are laid lengthwise and 

 across. The eggs are clay color, tinely 

 dotted with black. 



In spite of what Mr. Davie says in 

 regard to their flesh and about young- 

 sportsmen shooting them as game 

 birds, l)Ut not hankei-ing after their 

 flesh in riper years etc., I maintain that 

 they are good. I have oi-casionally run 

 aci'oss one while after ducks and wlicii 

 they are cooked I was never able to tell 

 tiie difl'erenee. Perhai)s my palate has 

 not been so highly educated as Mr. 

 Davie's, ut any rate I never yet have 

 found a person who sports at the Mud 

 Hen who, if questioned, can own uj) to 

 having tasted of them. They are like a 

 great many otlier tilings made to ap- 

 j)ear worse than thej' realh' are. 



W. i>. L. Bakke, 

 Minneapolis, ]\linn 



A Half Day's Egging in Los Angeles Co. 



About eight o'clock one morning last 

 season ('8S) my cousin and I started on 

 a small collecting hunt to stay half the 

 day. As we were passing by some 

 •'ucalyptus trees, our attention was at- 

 tracted to a young Mockingbird not 

 able to fly. We soon captured him and 

 put him inside of a handkerchief. As 

 we were crossing a small stream, we 

 came to a sycamore tree in which my 

 cousin had seen a nest, but it had been 

 torn down since he was there, but by 

 the alarmed movements of the female 

 which was a Kl ick-chiuned Humming- 



bird iTroi-hilus Alcxmuhi) 



we knew that there must be a lU'st in 

 the tree and^so theie was, which con- 

 tained two fresh eggs. After packing^ 

 them up we tied the lun'scs and investi- 

 gated a hole in the dead limb of a syca- 

 more tree out of which small straw.s^ 

 were ]>rotiiuling. '. It i)ro\cd to l)e a 

 nest of Parkmau's Wren. My cousin 

 was knocking against the end to enlarge 

 the hole, when all of it came ofl' and it 

 was well that he had his hand under it 

 or the six fresh eggs it contained would 

 have been broken. 



We had the good luck to lind another 

 set of two <'ggs of the Black-chinned 

 Hummingbird. i-' As our time had about 

 expired, we started home well pleased 

 with our success. 



M. L. Wicks, Jk., 

 Los Angeles, Cala. 



A Bird Funeral. 



Having heard the question a number 

 of times, as to what becomes of the 

 bodies of birds which die a natural 

 deatli, and never having heard anyone 

 say they had found one, and as I never 

 had in my (5 or 8 years of liird hunting, 

 I tliouglit I would write the OoLOGlST 

 t-oncerning an incident wiiich came 

 under my notice about a year ago. 



I was sitting in a swing in an orcliard 

 wlieii I noticed a number of Bluebirds 

 which seemed greatly' excited about 

 something. On going closer, I found 

 they were burying a Bluebird in a hole, 

 perhaps 4 x "2| inches and had it nearly 

 covered. When it was taken out, I 

 found it to be full grown and could see 

 no signs of its having been shot. 



I do not pi'etend to say this is what 

 becomes of all birds which die. It i.s 

 the only time I have ever seen sucii a 

 funeral. 



W. W. MOSHEB, 



Scott Co., Ills. 



