212 



THE OOLOQIST 



I left it and returned two days later. 

 As the nest still contained but five 

 eggs, I took them. 



Lifting the nest from the ground, for 

 the purpose of getting measurements, 

 what was my surprise to find two 

 more eggs, lying in the hollow from 

 which the nest had been removed. 



Two eggs were jxartly imbedded in 

 the dirt, but after washing, were 

 found to be, in shape and marking, ex- 

 actly the same as those in the nest. 

 Chas. W. Pelton. 

 Marshlield, Wisconsin. 



Merely a Protest Against Nature 

 Faking. 



The nature taker is still in the land! 

 Like the English Sparrow, he is al- 

 ways with us, and like this avian pest, 

 he is a abomination to society (hu- 

 man). , ''\. yii^ 



1 have just read a remarkable na- 

 ture fake. A writer in a boy and 

 girl magazine, a paper supposed to 

 be published for their edification and 

 education, tells how a boy robbed an 

 eagle's nest down in Texas. The boy 

 scaled a vine-covered cliff some two 

 hundred feet in height, unaided, with 

 a bag slung over his shoulder, to the 

 eyry. Finding two young birds in the 

 nest he put them AND THE NEST in- 

 to his basket (wherever he got the 

 basket the article didn't say) and 

 starts to descend to the anxious wait- 

 ing naturalist below, who had offered 

 him the exorbitant price of $200.00 for 

 eggs or young. The boy is attacked 

 in his decent by the enraged birds, 

 one of which the professor shoots, 

 which the boy seizes as it presumably 

 falls by him, and using it as a weapon 

 he defends himself against the other 

 bird, which continued to attack him, 

 although it had a broken wing, until 

 it is laid low by a well dircted shot by 

 the excited naturalist on the ground. 

 Then the boy descends in safety and 



claims his just reward. Can you beat 

 it? 



The greatest nature fake I have 

 ever read, rivaling any newspaper 

 stories of robins nesting on the axle 

 of a moving box car, etc. Is it any 

 wonder that nature faking is so preva- 

 lent, when magazines that ought to 

 know better, print such lies. I also 

 read of the Kingfisher nesting in a 

 small cottonj^-lined nest on the bough 

 cf a sycamore tree, high up and out 

 over the water of a stream. This was 

 also in a boy and girl magazine, but in 

 this instance the ignorant writer con- 

 fused the nesting habits of the King- 

 fisher with those of a Kingbird, in all 

 probability, but it was nevertheless a 

 raw nature fake. Other instances are 

 too numerous to mention. 



Richard F. Miller. 

 FhiladeliJhia, Pa. 



Piping Plover in Pennsylvania. 



In the western part of this state 

 this pretty little plover is only found 

 along the shores of Lake Erie. 



Even there it is not at all common 

 at the present time, although former- 

 ly it is said to have been quite com- 

 mon, and quite a colony used to nest 

 on the wide outside beach of the "Pen- 

 insula" near Erie, Pennsylvania, at 

 the present site of the "Fog Station." 

 Of recent years I have found this plov- 

 er to be rather scarce there and for 

 several years only a single pair have 

 nested there. This past season, while 

 there early in June I spent some time 

 watching this pair of birds. 



I had some difficulty locating the 

 nest as the birds were very wild and 

 the female would run away before 1 

 was close enough to get a very good 

 idea of where she started from. Af- 

 ter ap])roaching from different direc- 

 tions I got a very good idea as to what 

 part of the beach was the nesting site. 

 After staying away awhile I crept up 



