'!HE OOlAXUST. 



183- 



We were somewhat astouished to see 

 the tOAvn of Minnewaukaa not far dis- 

 tant, and the lake looked as though it 

 had lost its grip, about all that could be 

 seen was a good sized vand hole. After 

 taking a set of the Swainson's Hawk 

 from a nest in a piece of timber close by 

 we once more turned our horses heads 

 towards Graham's Island. We followed 

 a w'ell worn trail for many miles and 

 then turned off into the timber. Here 

 we discovered a log cabin with three 

 young men in possession. One of them 

 conducted me to a well about twenty 

 rods away where I refilled our bottles 

 and jug. He was anxious to know our 

 business so I explaineil as far as pos- 

 sible. He saitl he knew of some Ducks 

 nests in trees but did not want me to 

 take the eggs, as his "partner" would 

 be angry if they were in this way sac- 

 ritied to the cause of science and then 

 perhaps the aforesaid "partner" would 

 have less Ducks to slaughtar and throw 

 away, a very common practice as far as 

 I could learn. By the use of a little sil- 

 ver I finally persuaded him to point out 

 the trees. I expected to find Hooded 

 Mergan.sers, but to my joy they proved 

 to be American Golden-eye. Both nests 

 were in elm trees. One contained ten 

 eggs, the other thirteen. The nests 

 composed of w^hite tlown were placed 

 within eighteen inches of the opening. 

 One nest was within fifteen feet of the 

 grounfl. The other was placed in a 

 hollow branch perhaps twenty-five feet. 

 I had quite a hat full of eggs but still 

 had room for a set of Parkman's Wren 

 that were snugly hidden in an old rul)- 

 ber boot that hung on the side ot the 

 cabin. But I did not take them as the 

 "partner" was coming to see what de- 

 layed us. To get rid of an argument 

 and save time I passed around the back 

 of the cabin, jumped into the wagon 

 and took French leave. ^Ve soon 

 reached the end of th*e island or rather 

 peninsula. The only boat there was 

 useless so we could not visit the islands 



wdiere the Ring billed Gulls and Com- 

 mon Tertis nested. Here we camped 

 for the night using Buft"alo skulls for 

 seats and slept under the wagon. I 

 will not describe at the present time 

 our discomfort, but between the mos- 

 quitoes and the preparation to keep- 

 them awaj' that burned like lire on our 

 parboiled skins, betvveen the smoke and 

 intense thir.^t (caused by alkali water) 

 and the drenching we received from a 

 i-ain storm during the night. I think 

 it will be many a long day before I for- 

 get that nights camp on the shore of 

 Devil's Lake. 



The next day's search rewarded us 

 with one set of eight eggs of American 

 Golden-eye. Also one set of Purple 

 Martin taken from a hollow in a tree. 

 The tree that contained the Duck nest 

 had a huge nest of the Red-tailed Hawk 

 in which were two young in the down 

 and one egg. Our second night's camp 

 was on the prairie not far from Grand 

 Harbor. The next day we spent most 

 of our time at what is locally known as 

 Lake Alice. There we found a colony 

 of Night Herons. Had we been so 

 minded we could have taken hundreds 

 of Coofs eggs around this lake. Sev- 

 eial pair of Swainson's Hawks had 

 placed their bulky nests in bushes not 

 over six feet from the ground. Some 

 one had scraped the eggs out of them 

 and broke them except in one instance 

 where we picked up three eggs in a per- 

 fect state. A set of Shrike's eggs com- 

 pleted our finds for the day. W& 

 reached Cando that evening in due 

 time well pleased with our trip and our 

 heads full of plans for a longer one to 

 the Turtle Mountains. 



KuwiN S. Bkvant, 



Phrenix, N. Y. 



Late Nesting. 



It may he of interest to the readers 

 of the 0(')LOGIST to know tiiat on Octo- 

 ber 5, 1893, the nest of an Aiizoua Gold- 



