THE OOLOGIST. 



81 



up. It was made of the usual material 

 and contained three young about three 

 days old. Davie says the eggs of this 

 bird have been taken in North Caro- 

 lina. 



If any of the readers of the Oologist 



have found this bird breeding as far 



south as this, would like to hear of it 



through the columns of the Oologist. 



Harry C. Mark, 



Davenport, Iowa. 



Don't Use Caustic Potash! 



"One of the Crank's" advice to begin- 

 ners in the last Oologist. contains 

 many good hints, but when he recom- 

 mends the use of caustic potash for ha,d\y 

 incubated eggs, he leads me to believe 

 that he must be a "back number crank." 



Caustic potash (or soda) is out of date 

 for oologists' use and has been replaced 

 by pancreatin, which is a much better 

 article in many ways. Pancreatin be- 

 sides softening the embryo quicker and 

 more thoroughly, does not irtjtire the 

 sliell of an egg. a very important point. 



For use, uissolve one drachm •8,000 

 pancreatin" in one ounce of rain or soft 

 water . 



A medicine dropper makes a handy 

 syringe to introduce it into the egg. 



All skin must be cut away from the edge 

 of blow-hole, which need not be much 

 larger than for fresh eggs, unless incu- 

 bation is nearly complete, and after 

 blowing out all the liquid, fill the egg 

 with the pancreatin solution. Place 

 eggs in a warm place and you can blow 

 them out clean in from two hours to 

 two days, according to 8i"ze of egg, in- 

 cubation and amount of heat applied. 



Large eggs, almost ready to hatch, 

 usually have to be treated two or three 

 times at intervals of twelve or twenty- 

 four hours. I have blown three-fourths 

 incubated Chickadees' eggs two hours 

 after applying the ferment, by placing 

 the eggs upon the shelf of a kitchen 



range where the temperature was 150° 

 or over. 



I would most respectfully suggest, 

 that "One of the Cranks" try the pan- 

 creatin method and I'll wager he will 

 never use the caustic potash again. 



ISADOR S. TrOSTLER, 



Omaha, Nebraska. 



The Attitude of Whippoorwill When 

 Calling'. 



Has any of your readers seen a Whip- 

 poorwill in the act of uttering its notes? 

 If so. I would like to know if its atti- 

 tude corresponded to the one I had the 

 fortune to see giving forth its call. 



Being on a visit many years ago to a 

 part of the country where original for- 

 ests were abundant and Whippoorwills 

 were plentiful, I had gone out to the 

 door yard and was standing quietly sur- 

 veying the situation in the grey light of 

 a moon, obscured sufficiently as to pro- 

 duce no shadows, when one of the birds 

 made a noiseless sweep around me, and 

 dropped on the ground not more than 

 three feet from my feet and commenced 

 calling. It had laid itself upon one side, 

 with the wing of the other side fully ex- 

 panded, and with every call it flapped 

 that wing. Its head was thrown back 

 and its mouth wide open. It did not 

 appear to use its mouth to modulate the 

 sounds, that being done in or by the 

 throat. 



At that nearness it did not appear to 

 be forming words as we pronounce 

 them, the sound of rushing breath pre- 

 dominating, resembling Whi-oo wheoo, 

 uttered with great force, which one cnn 

 ; imitate very closely by keeping the 

 mouth open and using only the throat 

 and plenty of wind. 



Even since then when I hear one call- 

 ing, I wonder if it is lying on its si'le 

 and flapping its wing? Or was what I 

 saw unusual and accidental V which do«» 

 not seem to be likely. 



J. Alston Moffat. 

 London, Oot. 



