304 



THE OOLOGIST. 



been careful to place it in such a posi- 

 tion that it cannot be seen from below, 

 therefore it is exceedingly difficult to 

 discover." 



The nests of the large birds, of course, 

 can not be so well concealed as those 

 of the smaller species, but in this local- 

 ity, the Crows are quite skillful in hid- 

 ing their large domiciles. It would 

 seem as if the birds studied the trees in 

 the wood where they are going to 

 build, till they find one which has a 

 place near the top where they can place 

 their nests, so that it is impossible to 

 see it from below, unless one stands in 

 some i^articular spot and even then one 

 is often in doubt as to whether or not 

 that dark place is realy a nest or only 

 shadow. 



But aside from concealment, a nest 

 may be so placed that it can not be got 

 at by collectors or other enemies. The 

 nests of the Baltimore Oriole illustrate 

 this veiy well, as in the large majority 

 of cases they are built far out on the 

 ends of small limbs at a considerable 

 elevation from the ground, so as to be 

 inacce'^sible to man. The deep purse 

 shape of the nests also would prevent 

 birds of prey from seizing the inmates, 

 and the branches on which the nests are 

 built are usually too small for a large 

 bird to stand on, on one foot, as it 

 would be compelled to do. Dr. C. C. 

 Abbott calls attention to the fact, also, 

 that the deep nests are built in places 

 more remote from the habitations of 

 man, than the shallow ones, on account 

 of Hawks and Owls being afraid to ap- 

 proach civilization, but this does not 

 hold good in this locality. 



The nest of the Kingbird usually is 

 built near the end of a horizontal limb, 

 and is often inaccessible. One nest 

 found a few summers ago was built at 

 the end of an alder limb which stretched 

 out horizontally a few inches from and 

 to the middle of a wide brook, where it 

 could not have been reached unless one 

 waded up to his wai.st. It is needless 



to add that the eggs were hatched and 

 the young safely I'eai'ed. 



It will be noticed that I have selected 

 nests of Common birds as examples in 

 this paper, in order that, on account of 

 the birds' more general distribution, 

 the reader may verify, or disprove, as 

 birds vary much in different localities,. 

 what has here been stated. 



Glover M. Allen, 

 Newton, Mass. 



An Oologist of Early Day. 



Mr. John Y. Crone's ''Hash" in an 

 old Oologist calls to mind a collection • 

 of birds eggs I had when ten or twelve 

 years old. Some of your I'eaders may 

 be interested to know how we used to 

 collect eggs at that time. 



My father always strung his eggs on 

 a piece of yarn and hung them above 

 the fireplace, with a Crow's egg — which 

 he says Avas tvhite in those days — in the 

 middle, and the smaller eggs on each 

 side down to a Wren's or a Humming- 

 bird's. The string had passed out of 

 fashion before my day but such a thing 

 as a drill or blowpipe was unheard of. 

 1 suppose some of the big boys did use 

 them, as the time I am speaking of 

 wasn't so very long ago, after all, but 

 they were unheard of to us little fel- 

 lows. We generally used a pin, but I 

 have often made a hole in each end of 

 an egg with a "pi'icker" from a haw- 

 thorn bush and some boys used to break 

 the shell on a sharp twig or a splinter 

 from a rail fence. 



The boys usually kept the eggs in 

 cigar boxts or even paper ones — though 

 the mice were rather hard on these — 

 and only the more progressive collect- 

 ors iTsed tin. A layer of sand, cotton 

 or bi'an kept the eggs from rolling 

 about. I knew one bo_v who had a fine 

 tin box for his eggs. But he used bran 

 and the bugs soon got to it and ate out 

 the skin which lines the eggs so that 

 they would fall to pieces if you looked 



