THE OOLOGIST. 



67 



A Ramble In May. 



On the 16th -day of May in 1897 at 

 four o'clock in the morning I started on 

 a long ramble to Verdoy in Albany 

 county or about 15 miles from my home. 

 Arriving at Verdoy at about half pa&t 

 six, 1 started in a ravine toward the 

 Mohawk about two miles away. Start- 

 ing down the ravine I spied in a large 

 sand bank to the left a Kingfisher's 

 nest, from which I obtained a set of six 

 eggs after much hard digging. The 

 eggs were very much nest-colored, as 

 they were badly incubated. 



From the ravine I started off to a 

 small woods to the right, and soon 

 found a Red-shouldered Hawk's nest 

 with two eggs in it. The eggs were 

 verv heavily spotted, and incubation 

 had commenced. I also found in this 

 woods a nest of American Crow which 

 I did not climb up to, as I had already 

 dublicate s*-ts of this species 



G'lDg over to a few willows I next 

 obtained a set of seven heavily marked 

 egg(^ of Chickacee, which were almost 

 fresh. After this find I started for a 

 swamp, and on the way found a set of 

 five eggs of Wilson's Thrush, and an 

 incomplete set of Wood Thrush, which 

 I left. 



Just before reaching the swajap met 

 a farmer's boy whom I knew, and he 

 wanted to go with me, which I decided 

 to let him do. We had not gone far be- 

 fore I obtained a set of Mourning Dove, 

 which was the first that I had ever col- 

 lected, (jroing a little further the lad 

 stepped on a Woodcock sitting on her 

 nest and four eggs. He broke all the 

 eggs, but did not hurt the bird much as 

 she flew to few berry bushes near by. 

 The eggs were fresh, and I brought the 

 broken shells home with me, and man- 

 aged to patch up one pretty good spec- 

 imen. I felt almost sorry that I had 

 visited this swamp at all, as then these 

 birds would have reared their young, 

 and there would have been that many 



more of these rare birds in this locality. 

 I spent the rest of the afternoon watch- 

 ing these birds and managed to get 

 quite close to them several times before 

 they flew. 



In the fall I again visited the swamp 

 and was glad to find my friends still 

 there. I thought them quite safe, as 

 hunters seldom visit this out of the way 

 place. William Qdackenbdsh, 

 Lansingburg, N. Y. 



Nest Building" of Cooper's Hawk. 



One day early in April, 1898, while I 

 was prospecting for nests of Boptores, 

 I came upon a pair of Cooper's Hawks 

 at work building their nest in an oak 

 tree about thirty feet above the ground. 

 I was crawling under a barbed-wire 

 fence that ran through the woods when 

 I heard their "ka, ka, ka," which caused 

 me to look up so suddenly that a twig 

 caught my cap and sent it flying and a 

 barb jabbed me iu the back, reminding 

 me to lay low. The nest was about fifty 

 feet away and fearing to disturb th^ 

 hawks, I remained upon all fours and 

 was an interested observer of their man- 

 ner of approaching the nest. 



I spied the half completed nest just 

 as one of the hawks left it and thought 

 I had been discovered, but an instant 

 later the mate lit upon the nest and ar- 

 ranged a stick. 



Their manner of approaching the nest 

 was a very intei'esting and curious sight. 

 They came through the low woods fly- 

 ing just above the ground three or four 

 feet, with the speed of an arrow, and 

 when within fifteen or twenty feet of 

 the nest-tree they closed their wings 

 with a quick flip and "slid up" to the 

 nest in a graceful curve. 



They did not yisit the nest together 

 and apparently the one that was away 

 from the nest could see its mate, for no 

 sooner would one of them drop a few 

 feet below and fly away, than the^other 

 was on the upward curve. As if to 



