THE OOLOGIST 



191 



invariably eleven. All the clutches 

 which I have found have been of this 

 number and four other records of- 

 nests which are in my possession each 

 contained eleven eggs. 



The nests are composed of dead tus- 

 sock grass, leaves and rushes. They 

 are very broad and so slightly hol- 

 lowed that one or more of the eggs 

 will occasionally roll out. The site 

 usually chosen is in a thick clump of 

 grass and ferns directly upon the 

 ground but it is by no means uncom- 

 mon to find it in a tussock five 

 or six inches above it. In the 

 latter case it is woven quite tightly 

 into the standing grass, while in the 

 former it is more or less of a loose pile 

 of leaves and rushes. 



As the summer draws to a close the 

 birds do not confine themselves to 

 the hidden retreats of the breeding 

 season but take to the coastal marshes 

 with their newly reared families. At 

 this time they become quite curious 

 and often confide themselves too much 

 in our so called "Sportsmen" who 

 bang at anything which resembles a 

 bird. This species of rail stays with 

 us until the second or third week in 

 October when suddenly in a night they 

 will all disappear, and we know that 

 they have silently -flown to the sunny 

 south, only to return when the warm 

 sun again turns green our swamps. 



P. G. Howes. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Birds of New Jersey, their Nests and 

 Eggs. 



We are in receipt of the Annual Re- 

 port of the New Jersey State Museum 

 of 1908, relating to the birds of New 

 Jersey, by Whitnier Stone, containing 

 among other things, articles on the 

 Destruction and Protection of Birds; 

 on the Distribution and Migration of 

 Birds; an Analytical key to the Birds 

 of New Jersey; followed by a sup- 



posedly complete list of the birds 

 known to occur within the state, giv- 

 ing a technical description of each 

 species and notes on its occurrence in 

 various parts of the state, followed by 

 eighty four first class plates illustrat- 

 ing various species of bird life to be 

 found in the state. The whole being 

 a highly credible production; espec- 

 ially so in view of the fact that such 

 outputs by a public authority are us- 

 ually more or less the opposite. 



This work is a valuable addition to 

 any bird student's library. 



NOTES FROM FLORIDA. 



on 



CATHARiSTA URUBU. 



The writer was located the past sea- 

 son where he had ample material and 

 opportunities to make a fairly com- 

 plete study of the habits, etc., of this 

 "fragrant songster." The first set of 

 eggs was found February 10th, which 

 was three weeks sooner than any pre- 

 vious date recorded during the past 

 four years. I attribute this to the fact 

 that this part of Florida had practi- 

 cally had no rain during the past 

 three years, and the I.,akes were very 

 low and many of the larger and all of 

 the smaller wood ponds had dried up. 

 This had a very peculiar effect on bird 

 life in genenal, and many species nest- 

 ed under conditions that were far from 

 normal. I noticed that some species 

 nested several weeks earlier, but 

 found the nia.iority were several weeks 

 later, why this should be so I am un- 

 able to determine, but it is a fact. Dur- 

 ing late January and early February 

 when I was looking for Ward's Heron 

 and the Great Blues, I came across a 

 small "cypress" of about 15 acres in 

 area in a large i)iney woods, this "cy- 

 press" or "slough" as it is sometimes 

 called, was about half mile from a 

 laige lake. This swamp was bone dry, 

 first time ever known. Some giant 



