246 



THE OOLOGIST 



very rotten and caked, and all crack- 

 ed up as though it had been frozen 

 at some time. This was also a Wood 

 Duck's egg. The other ten eggs were 

 perfectly fresh and were Hooded Mer- 

 ganser's eggs! A si)lendid set, though 

 they j'equired much careful scrapin'^ 

 with a knife to remove the yellowish 

 dirty de;)Osit about as thick as tissue 

 paper, all over the eggs, acquired in 

 their f Ithy home. The two eggs found 

 on the ground and the two rotten ones 

 in the nest all broken, were old last 

 year's Wood Duck's eggs and had 

 lain in this nest over winter, 1 be- 

 lieve. I think the two large holes in 

 the broken one in the nest were made 

 by the bill of the Merganser in an 

 endeavor to throw it out of the nesi. 



I can now remember of having seen 

 a duck of some species in the vicin- 

 ity of this tree whenever I have visit- 

 ed this Heronry for several years be' 

 fore taking these eggs. The tree was 

 near three quarters of a mile from 

 the Illinois River and within three 

 hundred yards of the main line of the 

 A. T. & St. Fe. R. R. track where 

 trains are passing every few moments. 

 Each of this set are marked "131 1-10- 

 4-29-94.". 



The Hooded Merganser is a common 

 bird with us along this river during 

 migrations. It usually arrives with 

 the first of the ducks the last of Feb- 

 ruary or first part of March as soon 

 as the ice breaks up. 



It comes in flocks of from ten to 

 fifty individuals, travels low and in a 

 bunch without any regard for order, 

 and with great rapidity, usually fol- 

 lowing the main channel of the river. 

 Is not an easy bird to decoy and a 

 very hard one to kill. They will carry 

 off a lot of shot. Occasionally a stray 

 pair of birds remain to breed but 

 this is very rare, and when they do, 

 usually select a very tall, usually dead 

 Cottonwood tree standing right on the 



banl<s of the river. In the fall they 

 are among the last of the ducks to 

 con:e and only go en south as the riv- 

 er freezes up. They frequent mostly 

 the larger of the bavcus and the river 

 proper, seldom going into the smaller 

 creeks or sloughs. This nest w ab 

 near a creek at the head of a large 

 bayou, nearly a mile long and a half 

 mile wide. 



One other egg of this si;ecies asicie 

 Ucni those described in this article 

 has been taken in Marshall County, 

 Illinois, to my knowledge from the 

 ovary of a bird which was nhot by a 

 hunter about twenty years ago. Aside 

 from the nestings described in this 

 article, 1 know of no other nests ever 

 having been discovered in the coun- 

 ty, and have deemed the taking ot 

 the eggs of this species in this vicin- 

 ity of sufllcient ornithological import- 

 ance to make the foregoing extended 

 publication in reference thereto. 



R. M. Barnes. 



A Friday's Hunt. 



A great many people consider Fri- 

 day an unlucky day. I was never sup- 

 erstitious and I find that several of 

 my red-letter days happened on a 

 Friday. 



In May, 1905 I spent the 17th, 18th, 

 19th and 20th with a friend who was 

 then a member of the Life Saving 

 Crew at Erie, Pa., on Lake Erie. 



As the station is on the "Peninsula" 

 at the entrance to Erie Bay, I was 

 right on the spot all the time. 



On the 17th about the only thing 

 of interest was large numbers of Wil- 

 son's Terns. The 18th was no bet- 

 ter and it began to look like a tame 

 trip. That night it rained and Fri- 

 day was stormy and windy. I first 

 looked along the outside beach aways 

 but as there seemed to be nothing 

 but large numbers of Spotted Sandpip- 



