THE OOLOGIST. 



22J> 



It seems us ihnugli their only oltject 

 in coming hore, is t(* niise llu-ir liitle 

 family and get away again as quickly 

 as ijossible. For several years I have 

 tried to take a set of their cg^s,— thi,- 

 season I am .rewarded for my ellorts 

 with a nice set of six. 



On the Till of May [ noticed a male. 

 He seemed to be in a great Imrry U> 

 find a nesting site, and spent consider- 

 able time looking down a small stove 

 pipe that was sticking through the top 

 of a tisli-house,— a veiy poor place foi' 

 him to keep house. To lu-Ip the little 

 fellow along, I eut a holt,; in a cigar-bo\ 

 ■and nailetl the box up near by. The 

 next day I found him very busily en- 

 .gaged carrying moss into the box. 

 The l-:th, a female was thei-e to assist 

 in the work,— the most important i)art 

 ■of the family of course, and ihe nest 

 was c(mipleted in three days. Here 

 came a stoj; to the proceedings by the 

 disappearance of the female for aliout a 

 week. Six days after her return, she 

 ■completed the set of six. 



The nest was made entirely of moss, 

 lined with a few horse hairs. The eggs 

 are white, with a slight pinkish tinge, 

 ;spotted over the entire surface with 

 reddish-browii . On one, the dots form 

 a ring arouni! the middle of the t'gg,~ 

 ■on another, the smallest in the set, the 

 •dots are quite line. A few days after 

 taking the eggs and nest, 1 commenced 

 to look around for the next nesting- 

 place. Passing a barn one morning, I 

 was surprised it. see the female i-uuw 

 out of the barn through a broken win- 

 dow. In a short time, she was back 

 -again with a uiouiliful of leaves. 



After waiting a few days, I returned 

 to search for the ne.st. Standing on a 

 ■shelf near the window, was a tin cup, 

 and there in the cup was the nest with 

 one egg. This time the complete set 

 was four, whiih I let her hatch. Tlu' 

 •eggs were very similar to the first set. 

 _ The nest was made of dry leaves and 

 iine dry grass, with a few horse hairs ' 



tor a liuino-. 



\Vhit Harkison, 

 Houston Co., Minn. 



Breeding of the Virginia Rail. 



On the loth of June.l890,while invest- 

 igating a swampy tract near here for 

 eggs of the common Red-wing Black- 

 bird, I discovered an egg lying on the 

 ground, in a depression on a small 

 hummock, caused by a fast disappear- 

 ing stump. On first finding it I could 

 tiiink of nothing but the American 

 Woodcock, though the ,'gg seemed 

 very small f<,i- that bird. But after re- 

 liceting I concluded that it must be 

 some other bird as it was far too late 

 for the Woodcock to be breeding, here 

 at least. As I knew the set could not 

 be complete, I concluded to leave it for 

 positive identification and more eggs, 

 '.vhen found the nest was 5 inches deep' 

 with no lining whatever. On June ITtli 

 I visited the nest again and did not 

 find any bird on the nest. It was rain- 

 ing hard and the water was high 

 around it. The nest was well lined 

 with dead ilag, stalks and moss so as to 

 nearly fill the cavity. It now measured 

 7 inches in diameter and was but slight- 

 ly hollowed. There were' 4 eggs, all 

 alike. 



I was now- certain that it was no 

 Woodcock's nest as the Woodcock sets 

 very soon after she lays the 3(1 egg, so I 

 left the nest for further watching, 

 u-hich as I afterward found was fortun- 

 ate. On the 19th 1 visited it again and 

 found the bii'd at home. 



I had never seen anything like it be- 

 f(n-e so I did not disturb the nest 

 though I saw as she left the 

 nesr that tiu're were 6 eggs. As 

 the bird ran around in the flags I took 

 a good picture of it in my mind and 

 then went home and got out my Key 

 and found that it was the Virginian 

 Rail. As I had nevei- found this bird 

 here before, though the Carolina Rail is 

 common, I naturally felt much elated. 



