244 



THE OOLOGIST 



1 got into my skiff and pulled across 

 the river for the cabin boat. Scarce- 

 ly had I arrived, ere the snag tell with 

 a loud crash and the sentence which 

 opens this article was shouted across 

 to me after much diflficulty. To again 

 l)ull across to where my new found 

 friends were was the work of only a 

 few minutes. The old dead tree had 

 fallen with tremendous force, being 

 protected by but two or three broken 

 limbs. One of these had split open 

 by the force of the fall and there lay 

 exposed to view, eleven of the rare 

 eggs of the Hooded Merganser, five of 

 which were broken and six intact; all 

 of last season's laying. The old bird 

 had evidently lost her life after lay- 

 ing the full clutch. 



These six eggs gave me one of the 

 very hardest undertakings at egg 

 blowing that I ever had. The con- 

 tents had partially dried and caked; 

 but finally they were saved in fine 

 shape and today occupy a place in my 

 cabinet. I shall never part with these, 

 my first eggs of this species. 



In later years I found another nest 

 of this species over fifty feet up in 

 the dead limb of a tall living Cotton- 

 wood tree standing right on the bank 

 of the same river two miles north of 

 Lacon; but could not reach it because 

 of the frailty of the limb. Still anoth- 

 er nest I took some years later. 



The Hooded Merganser is a gener- 

 ally distributed member of the duck 

 tribe throughout most of North Amer- 

 ica. Nowhere very plentiful, yet not 

 rare in most localities. The male is 

 a splendidly garbed creature with thb 

 beautiful crest from which the species 

 gets its misnomer of "Hooded" Mer- 

 ganser. They frequent usually the 

 clearer fresh water streams and live 

 principally on fish. The flesh is not a 

 table delicacy by any means. 



The nest which is merely the down 

 from the bird's breast, is placed in the 



hollow of a tree near the water at 

 varying heights from the ground from 

 eight to sixty feet. In this the female 

 lays from seven to twelve nearly 

 spherical, glossy, china white eggs 

 with one of the thickest and certainly 

 the hardest shells known to me 

 amongst the ducks. These eggs are 

 not ))lentiful in collections and are 

 much sought after by collectors. 



The movements of the bird are ex- 

 ceedingly quick. Some of the authori- 

 ties say its flight exceeds that of all 

 the other ducks in speed. The birds 

 are shy in the wild state; yet take 

 readily to semi-domestication. One 

 male in Garfield Park Lagoon, Chi- 

 cago, last spring seemed almost as 

 tame as any of the tame ducks there. 



The second nest of this species, 

 I ever discovered that I was able to get 

 to was in a natural cavity in a Soft 

 Maple tree thirty-nine feet above 

 ground. A limb about ten inches in 

 diameter had broken off about six feet 

 from the trunk of the tree. The inner 

 portion of the limb had rotted out, 

 having just an outer shell of live 

 bark and wood not over an inch and 

 a half thick. The opening was to the 

 east. The tree stood in the midst of 

 the swamp on the edge of the small 

 creek that winds through the Heronry 

 south of Lacon, seven miles. It was 

 about two feet thick and covered with 

 growing grape vines. The timber is 

 very open there, no underbrush, all 

 big trees and very swampy. 



It was within seventy-five feet of 

 a large sycamore tree containing seven 

 nests of the Great Blue Heron. As 

 we passed through the west side of 

 the Heronry, I noticed some species 

 of duck flying rapidly through the air 

 as though she had just left this tree. 

 She was less than a hundred feet 

 from the tree when I first saw her and 

 going like a streak, directly away 

 from the tree. I now do not believe 



