THE OOLOGIST. 



357- 



tlotteil with browu, somelinies over the 

 entire surface, but oftener near the 

 larger end. Occasionally there is a 

 continence of blotches, which makes a 

 patch at the butt, and again the s])ot3 

 form a ring. If a comparison were 

 made, it might be said that the red- 

 bird's eggs more nearly approach those 

 of the Rose-breasted Grosbreak, both in 

 color and markings, than any other 

 eggs that we have in my section. They 

 are almost always smaller than the 

 Grosbeak's, yet I have seen them so 

 alike in size, shape and markings that 

 the best expert would be deceived and 

 not able to identify. 



Davie gives three to five as the size of 

 a set, but I have never found a set of 

 five eggs, nor can I learn of that num- 

 ber being taken. In quite two-thirds 

 of the complete sets that I have found 

 only three eggs occupied the nest. 



Although so well known, the collec- 

 tions of eggs throughout the country, 

 do not contain good series of sets of 

 this Tanager. I refer to local collec- 

 tions, and not the ones which are bought 

 and exchanged for all over the Union. 

 In fact I can say that the eggs of this 

 species are not easily taken. 



It is not rare to find nests, but it is 

 not always an easy matter to get the 

 eggs. I recall my earlier attempts at 

 securing the eggs. The first nest was 

 all of ten feet from the trunk and 

 placed on a limb of a size wdiich would 

 not bear my weight, nor could I beud 

 it up to the limb above. Placing two 

 friends below with a blanket in their 

 hands, I tried the act of shaking the 

 eggs out. Result: Shook out O. K. but 

 smashed when they struck the blanket. 



My next nest was well out on a limb 

 and cjuite thirty feet up. Reaching out 

 I tied a rope on limb and the other end 

 of the rope was made fast to limb 

 above. Then I whittled for a half hour. 

 Result: Limb rotated when rope was 

 pulled and eggs went to destruction. 

 The next two sets were just ready to 



hatch and the eggs ruined in attempts-, 

 at blowing. In fact I had been collect- . 

 ing four years before a good set was 

 secured. 



Like the efforts of most boys, my per-, 

 sistence was worthy of a better cause. 

 Now, as 1 look back, although there are. 

 a thousand pleasing memories in con- 

 nection with my trips and escapades, 

 it is painful to think how I erred in 

 judgment for the need of an advisor. 



There was no Oologist in those early 

 days to help a fellow along. 



DiDYMUS. 



Water Birds of Heron Lake. 



Every collector of eggs in America, 

 nearly, knows about Heron Lake, the 

 "locality indicated on the data for his 

 sets of Franklin's Gull being," Heron 

 Lake. Jackson Co., Minn. Knowing 

 well the famousness of this collecting 

 ground, and aware that this spot is the 

 home of that quiet but enthusiastic gar- 

 dener, sportsman and ornithologist, Mr. 

 Thomas Miller, I found an added satis- 

 faction, last April in the fact that my 

 new work had called me to a spot not 

 five miles from the homes of Mr. Miller 

 and the Franklin Gulls. 



It is a really wonderful avifaimian 

 legion. The lake at high water has a 

 linear extent of fifteen miles. (In 1870, 

 before the day of railroads, a steamer 

 plied the lake, for this distance, while 

 Sandhill Cranes nested, plentifully, on 

 the prairie slopes along the we=tern 

 end of the lake.) Thus, evidently, is 

 formed a local point in the belt of mi- 

 gration lying immediately west of the 

 Mississippi river; while the sparse oc- 

 currence of tiny natural tree-groups 

 (oak, ash, box-elder, cottonwood), and 

 of well regulated and well grown 'tree- 

 claims" and "wind-breaks," provides 

 the linest of resting and feeding places 

 for the smaller land birds. (Mr. Miller 

 sets, behind his pipe, of a Sunday after- 

 noon in early May, beside liis door, be- 



