188 



THE OOLOGIST. 



States have been supplied with Her- 

 ons from this heronry, and when prop- 

 erly fed, live for quite a number of 

 years. In bringing them home we 

 were obliged to acquire a bag of a 

 kind farmer, who would not accept any 

 pay for it. The thrusts with their 

 sharp bills were dangerous. The Her- 

 ons of this section only raise one 

 brood, while the southern states claim 

 two broods. When boating on the 

 Niagara River, they can be seen 

 standing motionless in the water, 

 watching for the finny tribe, when, 

 with lightning speed, the long neck 

 and bill goes down and captures a 

 fish; and to think that they have to 

 make a 40 or 50-mile flight with it to 

 their hungry offspring. Frogs and 

 snakes are also a prey to their appe- 

 tites. 



This trip was very interesting to all 

 that took part. 



Any further particulars will be glad- 

 ly given. 



EDWARD REIXECKE, 

 400 Elm St., 



Buffalo, N. Y. 



The Great Blue Heron lays, as do 

 other birds, larger sets of smaller eggs 

 in the northern states. Southern sets 

 run 3 and 4 usually and average of 

 large size. — Ed. 



WILD PIGEONS IN MICHIGAN. 



Birds Return to North Woods After 

 Thirty Years' Absence. 



(Special to Chicago Record-Herald.) 



Munising, Mich., Oct. 20. — Reports 

 from various localities in the Lake Su- 

 perior region would indicate that af- 

 ter an absence of thirty years wild 

 pigeons — also called Passenger Pig- 

 eons because of their conspicuous 

 habit of passing from one part of 

 the country to the other in immense 

 flocks, sometimes clouding the sun in 

 flight — are coming back to the forests 

 of the "north country." 



Just where these pretty birds of pas- 

 sage have kept themselves for a third 

 of a century is not known, but the 



general supposition is that they have 

 been breeding in the wooded and un- 

 settled regions of South America. 

 Woodsmen report hundreds of them 

 along the Cloquet River in Minnesota, 

 anrl colonies have also appeared, it is 

 said, in the Wisconsin woods north 

 of Spooner, in the vicinity of Lake Su- 

 perior. Last spring a flock was seen 

 in Presque Isle Park, at Marquette, by 

 the caretaker, who, when a young 

 man, had killed many of the birds, 

 and he recognized the species at once. 



Many middle-aged and elderly men 

 remember the old days on the farm in 

 Michigan, Wisconsin or elsewhere in 

 the great lakes region when these 

 birds were so thick that a bey could 

 kill hundreds of them in a day with 

 no better weapon that a club. In those 

 days trapping the birds for market 

 was a regular business with a large 

 number of men. The birds were ser- 

 ved at hotels and restaurants in the 

 cities and were regarded as a great 

 delicacy. In fact, so great a hold did 

 this food have on the public palate 

 that squab raising has been a profita- 

 ble business since the departure of 

 the wild species years ago. 



[Again we get rumors of the oc- 

 currence of the Passenger Pigeon. 

 Have any of the "Oologist's" readers 

 andything definite to add? — Ed.] 



FIND FOSSIL REMAINS OF 



ANTIDELUVIAN MONSTER 



Expedition Returns from Rocky Moun- 

 tains with Nearly Two Carloads 

 of Extinct Species of Animals. 

 New York. Oct. 26.— Three big ex- 

 peditions of the American Museum of 

 Natural History arrived from the 

 Rocky Mountain regions, after several 

 months' rough work, bringing nearly 

 two carloads of petrified skeletons of 

 about 500 animals, mostly new to 

 science, and which lived on earth from 

 one and a half to eight million years 

 ago. Among the many rare finds and 

 which caused considerable specula- 

 tion and excitement among the scien- 

 tists at the museum, were two dinos- 

 aurs new to science, one of which was 

 of huge proportions, bearing some re- 

 semblance to the great creature 

 known as Triceratops. 



The expeditions were conducted un- 

 der Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, 

 paleontologist of the museum and of 

 the governments of the United States 



