62 



THE OOLOGIST. 



which I have ever found their ncst^. 

 The following is a li*t <-f the dates of 

 my finds in the past two seasons. 



April 20th, '97, one set of four fresh 

 eggs; May 3lI, '97, one set of five fresh 

 eggs; May 26th. '97, one set of four 

 slightly incubated eggs; April 30th. '98. 

 one set of f>jur fresh eggs; May 19th, 

 '98, two sets of four and six fresh eggs; 

 June 1st, '98, one set of three, incuba- 

 tion slight; June 3, '98, one set of three, 

 incubation advanced. 



May 20th, '98 I took a set of four 

 fresh eggs of the Blue- headed Vireo, 

 the nest being placed about fifteen feet 

 from the ground in a small maple tree. 

 The nest was composed of pine needles 

 and plant down, and thickly lined 

 with fine hair. I also took two sets of 

 four and five fresh eggs of the Spotted 

 Sandpiper. 



May 25, 1898 I took a set of four fresh 

 eggs of the Bobolink from a large mead- 

 ow near here. Also a set of five slight- 

 ly incubated eggs of the Red-headed 

 Woodpecker from a large hole in a 

 dead tree. 



Along the Mohawk river which runs 

 near here is my favorite collecting 

 ground. Its banks are lined with but 

 ternut and willow trees both of the 

 dead and live variety, with thousands 

 of small thorn bushes which makes it a 

 good nesting place for the hundreds of 

 Warblers, Vireos, Blackbirds, Wood- 

 peckers and Bluebirds which nest here 

 in the spring. In the middle of the riv- 

 er near here is a small island which is 

 a favorite breeding place of the Spotted 

 Sandpiper. The following is a list of 

 the dates upon which I have found 

 their nests there. 



May 20th, '97. one set of four fresh 

 eggs; May 28th, '97, two sets of four and 

 five fresh eggs; June 12th, '97, one set 

 of three, incubation advanced; June 

 5th, '98, two sets of four fresh eggs 

 each; June 14th, '98. one set of three, 

 incubation slight; June SOih, '98, one 

 set of four, incubation advanced. 



I found two sets of American Bittern 



upon May 28th, '98 and June 12th, '98, 



but both sets were so badly incubated 



that it was very difficult to blow them. 



C. H. Johnston. 



Rome, N. Y. 



A Large Set of the Baltimore Oriole. 



I thought I would write a few lines 

 about an ex'ra large set of the Balti- 

 more Oriole's eggs, that I found while 

 passing through a large orchard, on 

 May 15, 1898 



I observed two Baltimore Orioles 

 building a nest I noticed that the nest 

 was only half done and so I visited it 

 two weeks later on May 29, 1898. I 

 went up to it and found it contained a 

 beautiful set of seven very small Balti- 

 more Oriole's eggs. 



The nest was hung from a drooping 

 limb of an apple tree, about 11 feet 

 high, composed of the usual material — 

 string, dandelion down, yarn, strips of 

 soft bark, etc., and lined with horse 

 hair, etc. 



The eggs were very small and they 

 did not have many spots. They were 

 creamy white, spotted, and marked 

 with zigzag lines, and spots of lilac, 

 dark chestnut and black. 



Is not this a very large set of Balti- 

 more Oriole's eggs? 



J. S. H. 

 W. Medford, Mass. 



I was out hunting February 21st for 

 Great Horned Owl's nests, found one 

 and while I stood watching the old 

 birds I discovered a beautiful albino 

 squirrel, playing about on a large tree 

 with four or five gray squirrels. It was 

 a perfect beauty, between very light 

 silver gray and light cream color, plump 

 and fat with large bushy tail. The 

 Owls nest contained two eggs but one 

 was cracked so I did not take them. 

 Geo. W. Vosburgh, 



Columbus, Wis. 



