The oologist 



161 



with a center patch of chestnut; nape 

 black; belly white. Bird in the downy 

 plumage. These little fellows dive 

 by putting their heads under the 

 water and swimming along with all 

 the rest of the body on top. Later I 

 again made a visit to this nest and 

 found the mother Grebe on the nest, 

 she allowing me to approach within 

 four feet before she left it; one more 

 egg was hatched. This is the only time 

 1 ever succeeded in finding a Grebe 

 incubating. 



Oology Under Difficulties 

 When one goes to war, hobbies are 

 forgotten and put aside with all the 

 other comforts and acustomed ways 

 of the days that were. So when I en- 

 listed in the fall of 1917, my egg tools 

 were laid away with my civilian 

 clothes and I wondered if I ever were 

 destined to take another set again. 

 Fate proved kind to me, however. 



Originally in the 20th Engineers I 

 was transferred while going across on 

 the transport to the 10th Engineers, 

 and after a week in a casual camp at 

 Bloise, I finally ended my long jour- 

 ney in a logging camp in southern 

 France, near the little town of Pon- 

 tunx. All this occurred in the winter 

 months, and by the time spring ar- 

 rived I had become familiar with the 

 country in which I found myself and 

 realized that situated as I was in the 

 Pine Woods of France I could well 

 take up collecting again, and so pass 

 away the little leisure I had. Pleas- 

 antly and profitably a book on the or- 

 nithology of France, written in French, 

 and a good dictionary had assisted 

 me in learning the names of the birds 

 that I saw but 1 could find little infor- 

 mation on the breeding habits of the 

 various species. So at first I made 

 many mistakes and wasn't as success- 

 ful as I might have been. The Long 

 Tailed Tit was plentiful and owing 



to its name and its characteristic ac- 

 tions I thought it nested in cavities of 

 trees with the result that not until the 

 28th of April did 1 find my first nest, 

 with young. This somewhat to my 

 surprise and to my great interest was 

 a large ball of moss, lined with 

 feathers and covered externally with 

 lichen and with the entrance at the 

 side. It was twenty feet from the 

 ground saddled in a crotch of a Cork 

 Oak at the side of the road and was 

 found by seeing the bird go to it. On 

 the 12th of May, however, I found my 

 first set of fresh eggs, four of the 

 Chaffinch. The nest was fifteen feet 

 from the ground, in a crotch against 

 the branch of a large Cork Oak at the 

 side of the road. It was made of 

 green moss, lined with soft grass, 

 feathers and horse hair and covered 

 well externally with lichens. 



The Chaffinch is one of the most 

 abundant birds of southern France and 

 in the next month and a half I came 

 across three other nests similar in 

 situation and construction to the 

 first. The last found, July 7, held four 

 incubated eggs. 



The Green Woodpecker similar in 

 almost every respect to our Flickft*- 

 was the next to succumb to my efforts 

 and on May 26, I took a nice set of 

 six fresh eggs. I had found his nest 

 the week before and when I returned 

 to it I noticed at once that some one 

 else had been ahead of me and en- 

 larged the hole considerably. Not be- 

 ing able to get my hand in it, how- 

 ever, I decided to enlarge it a little 

 on my own account with satisfactory 

 results as far as I was concerned. 

 Seemingly a Frenchman had attempt- 

 ed to secure some eggs for breakfast 

 but had lacked the necessary per- 

 severence. Knowing the peasants as 

 I do now, I felt that that was prob- 

 ably the case for in France nothing is 

 done without due deliberation and de- 



