THE OOLOGIST. 



141 



carry a rough "pass-book," or some 

 such article, in which are pencilled your 

 short-hand or hieroglyphic notes, but 

 this book is for the full, careful and per- 

 manent record.) 



I have written the makers of this 

 bank book, asking them to give Lattin 

 & Co. prices in quantities for the book, 

 furnished without the bank printing, or 

 with any such indicative or time-saving 

 marks or abbreviations as somebody's 

 wisdom or ingenuitj' may suggest. 

 And I am very sure that the publishers 

 of this paper will furnish these books 

 to their patrons at such prices as will 

 make it a disgrace to every collector, 

 that is an oologist,/or life, if he fail to 

 use them. P. B. Peabody, 



Owatonna, Minn. 



A Collecting Trip in Northern Iowa. 



Saturday, May 13, 1893, was to me 

 the date of a "Red Letter Collecting 

 Trip" if I may borrow the expression. 

 About 6 a. m. I started with a friend 

 for Lake Edwards, which is a small 

 lake about six miles southwest of Foi'est 

 City in Hancock county. As we were 

 crossing the prairie about 7 o'clock we 

 heard the rumbling "boom, boom" of 

 some prairie chickens coming from over 

 a hill, and on ascending it, saw quite 

 a flock of them on a level place on the 

 short prairie grass, with one in the 

 middle strutting about with head 

 raised, tail spread and wings drooping. 



There may have been more than one 

 of them drumming, but they took alarm 

 and flew away so quickly that I had 

 very little time to notice. 



Saw a few Ducks in the sloughs, 

 numbers of Bartramian Sandpipeis on 

 the prairies and fields and many Sora 

 Rails. The Soras seemed so verj' tame 

 that they could hardly be made to fly 

 by wading after them as they ran along 

 trying to hide in the thin grass; with 

 their short, stubby tails bobbing when 

 they walked, and standing straight up 

 when they were standing still. 



Shot a female Wilson's Phalarope, 

 from a bunch of four or five in the 

 water in a small slough. When I came 

 to dissect it I found it contained :.n egg 

 about the same color as a Blue Jay's 

 egg, but paler, larger and more point- 

 ed. It Avould probably have been laid 

 that day had I not shot the bird in the 

 morning. 



We stopped for a while at a small 

 pond east of Lake Edwards, and hunt- 

 ed ai'ound for Uucks' nests, but found 

 none. 



My friend, who had lived in this 

 vicinity and hunted considerably, 

 though not a "collector '' said that ten 

 T; ears ago he sometimes had gone out 

 with a pail and gathered in Ducks' 

 eggs to eat, around this pond, but of 

 late .years they were scai'ce. 



We soon came around to a slough 

 running out north from Lake Edwards, 

 bordered by a grove of small trees, 

 mostlj'^ oaks. Examined three nests 

 that looked like Crows', all iy oaks and 

 not over twenty-five feet from the 

 ground. One contained six of young 

 Crows and auotiier fragments of egg- 

 shells. They wei'e much more sub- 

 stantially built than any Hawk's nest 

 I have seen, being smaller, deeper and 

 closely built of sticks, and lined with 

 soft strips of biu'k, binding twine, hair, 

 etc. 



While standing on the bank of the 

 lake three large white gulls came fly- 

 ing over, of which we managed to drop 

 one which proved to be a fine female 

 Ring-billed Gull. 



Finding a boat we rowed out in the 

 lake, whei*e we saw numerous musk- 

 rats, coots and hundredso of Black 

 Terns (commonly called "Slough Gull") 

 hovering around screaming and dip- 

 ping their heads into the water occas- 

 ionally. On shooting one a large num- 

 ber hovered over where it lay in the 

 water, affording an excellent oppor- 

 tunity for wing shots. 



Soon after this we left the boat and 

 concluded to have a swim, as the day 



