10 



THE OOLOGIST. 



grown with tule, here we found Red- 

 wing Blackbirds nesting, and about 

 100 yards back from the road on this 

 same piece of ground, were six or 

 eight willows growing. Young Gra- 

 ham had passed that place just ahead 

 of me, and when I first looked through 

 the trees I could see nothing but 

 soon located three nests of Brewers 

 Blackbirds in one of the trees. I 

 called to the others to come. In the 

 first tree I climbed I was rewarded 

 with two very fine sets 2. 4 of Brew- 

 ers, the other nest only having one 

 egg. Altogether we got fourteen sets 

 from these trees, not counting the nest 

 of 1, 2, or 3 eggs in, which we left 

 undisturbed. We worked back to- 

 wards camp but found nothing of in- 

 terest and put in the balance of the 

 day and evening in eating and sleep- 

 ing and telling bird stories. On wak- 

 ing at 5 o'clock Wednesday morn- 

 ing I got up and took a look around. 

 The bay was as smooth as a mill 

 pond and tide favorable. We hurried 

 with our breakfast and prepared for 

 our trip to the island, as it was our 

 last day and last chance, as I had to 

 be at home that night. When we 

 were ready we loaded egg cases, bask- 

 ets, buckets and lunch into the wagon 

 and drove to the landing, Messrs. 

 Graham, father and son, the boatman 

 and his helper and myself being the 

 ones to go out, Mr. Lewis not feeling 

 well, and staying at home to look out 

 for the camps. It was a hard pull of 

 over an hour across the bay, and the 

 wind coming up as the sun rose high- 

 er. We made the mouth of the bay 

 and across the bar, then followed close 

 to the shore under the lee of a high 

 bluff between us and the ocean on 

 the other side for one-half mile before 

 coming to the open ocean. From the 

 main land to the island it was three- 

 fourths of a mile of open water and 

 when we got full benefit of the large 

 rollers. In going this last three-quar- 



ters of a mile we began to notice more 

 birds about, Pigeon Guillemots, Cor- 

 morants and Gulls and as we neared 

 the island we could see the whole 

 surface of the rocks covered over with 

 Cormorant and a few Gulls. 



We made for the leeward side of 

 the island to make a landing. In 

 fact, it was the only place where we 

 could land, as the only beach where 

 we could land was on that side, and 

 was about 16 to 20 feet long and about 

 10 feet wide, just enough to land a 

 small boat. When 20 yards or so from 

 the landing place we felt the swells 

 the most, and it was ticklish business 

 to keep the boat from striking the 

 small rocks that showed themselves 

 when the swells were lowest. We 

 made the landing place O. K. though 

 and three of us jumped out onto the 

 beach into the water nearly waist 

 deep and held the boat while the 

 other two of the party unloaded the 

 boxes, baskets out onto the rocks. We 

 then pushed the boat out into the wa- 

 ter and the boatman rowed out about 

 50 yards from the island, away from 

 the rocks. We then, each one of us 

 picked up as much of our traps as we 

 could carry and climbed up to the 

 flat part of the island about 10 feet 

 from the water line. While we were 

 landing the birds had taken wing and 

 were circling around us uttering their 

 shrill cries and when we reached the 

 top of the island we found that there 

 were as many more standing near 

 their nests and looking at us as though 

 they were wondering what our in- 

 trusion meant. 



My, but what a sight! nests only 

 a foot or so apart, covered the whole 

 island, where the rocks were flat 

 enough to hold a nest. We placed 

 our boxes, baskets, etc., together in 

 a pile and walked around between 

 the nests, taking in the sights before 

 beginning to gather the eggs. The 

 nests were built up of sea weed and 



