206 



THE OOLOGIST. 



auininr.s hole you will find a IjiirroAving 

 owl's nest. 



The c-ry of this liird is at night, atid 

 is sort of a mournfid noise not unlike 

 the second deeadenee of (•03'otte howl. 

 8. iV: (J., 

 (ilii)8on, Ne!j. 



After "Gator's" Egga. 



I have a little to say about my suc- 

 eess ill iiiiding alligatoi- eggs, whieh I 

 trust will be of intierest to the readers 

 of the OoLOGisT. 



Last year, with little troulde, I found 

 several alligator's nests containing a 

 great nianj' eggs; but not so this year, 

 early in August, I, iii com- 

 pany with Mr. Herman Weisiahn, of 

 Apopka, started off with great ex- 

 pectations for eggs. We walked to the 

 places where I found some last year, 

 but nothing but old nests could v,e 

 tiiid. Now, I shall first give j-ou an 

 idea of an alligator's nest: The alliga- 

 tor tries to find the roughest and most 

 unsurpassable places in a hammock; 

 here she cleans a round place two to 

 four feet in diameter for her nest, 

 having done this, a layer of muck is 

 brought, upon which she lays a laj'er of 

 eggs, then comes muck and then 

 eggs again, and so on until the eggs are 

 all in the nest and well covered up. 

 The pile is sometimes three feet high. 



When going along the shore of a lake 

 yon can see whether there is a nest 

 near or not, for the alligator has a verj- 

 uice path from the water to the nest. 



Now, again to the egg hunt. We 

 walked a good many miles, waded 

 through water, got stuck in the mud, 

 scratched by blackberry vines, stimg bj' 

 wasps and came home with nothing 

 Ijut a cold. I shall not hunt for alliga- 

 tor eggs again this year, and Intpe that 

 others have had better success. 

 Nicholas V. Linden, 



Orange Co.,'Fla. 



Notes from Northern Minnesota. 



' June 18, l«i)0 INly cousin found a 



nest of the Virginia Rail in a small 



nnirsh while wi; were hunting for the 



! nests of water birds. 



I The nest, a slight platform of dried 



I reeds hid among the growing reeds, 



contained seven eggs in various stages 



! of incubation. 



j June 20. Found a nest of the Bobo- 



I link in a dry slough. Nest on the 



ground, hidden from view ]>y a willow 



bush about two feet high. Composed 



of dried grass. 



We saw the male Bobolink before we 

 found the nest and so we began to hunt 

 for it. After going a short distance, we 

 scared up the female. It flew close to 

 the ground a short distance and then 

 disappeared in the bushes. The place 

 where it Hew up was several feet from 

 the nest. The nest contained four fresh 

 eggs. 



June 22. Took a set of four eggs o 

 the Clay-colored Sparrow {Spizclla 2i<il- 

 lida.) Nest and eggs similar to those of 

 {Spizella social is). 



July 5. A few days ago founcl two 

 nests of the Black-throated Bunting. 

 Nests composed of line round grasses- 

 and line dried weed stems, lined with 

 very fine grasses and a few horse-hairs. 

 One nest was on the ground in a clump 

 of grass and the other in a small bush. 

 The former contained young birds and 

 the latter, four fresh, light-blue eggs. I 

 took the eggs and to-day I found a cow- 

 bird's egg in the nest out of which I had 

 taken the eggs. 



June 22. Found a nest of tiie Prairie 

 Horned Lark. It contained four of its 

 own eggs and fom- Cowbird's eggs. 



KOLLA P. CUUKIE, 



Polk Co., Minn. 



A juvenile monthly presents the fol- 

 lowing sample of "good rhetoric" in it.s- 

 eilitorial column, viz.: "What ails the 

 •Tennessee FhilatelisV? We haven't sair 

 it since may." 



