60 



THE OOLOGIST 



or impracticable to attempt to take the 

 nest unless you are a prospector and 

 have mining tools and dynamite to 

 work with. But with the average col- 

 lector who collects near his home he 

 can soon work up a collection of nests 

 of much educational value. 



The nests of birds such as wood- 

 peckers can often be secured without 

 much difficulty; when these birds nest 

 in fence posts I have often taken the 

 whole post home, sawed off the sec- 

 tion containing the nest and put the 

 rest of the post on the wood pile. Quite 

 often some collectors saw a nest hole 

 below the hole dug out by the birds 

 to show the bed of the nest and the 

 eggs. This is very satisfactory. 



Where the nest is small it is well 

 to place it in your cabinet, as with 

 hummingbirds, vireos, knatcatchers 

 and and some warblers, as nests are 

 great dust collectors and should be 

 protected by the cabinet or a glass 

 show case when possible. When your 

 oological specimen is rare or you have 

 no duplicates I should not advise the 

 placing of the specimens in the nest 

 as they are more liable to breakage 

 than in the recesses of your cabinet 

 and also light, continually falling on 

 your specimens will cause the eggs to 

 fade to some extent. However, the 

 private collector will find much pleas- 

 ure in forming a collection of this 

 kind. Some of these little nests are 

 beauties of nature and what is more 

 wonderful than the nests of some of 

 the small warblers, the vireos, the 

 hummingbirds, marsh wren, and the 

 Baltimore oriole? And you will have 

 no trouble in their preparation as a 

 nest needs no skinning nor blowing 

 as in the case with other ornithologi- 

 cal specimens. As most of the nests 

 will be found in trees you will need 

 only a good pocket knife or with 

 others a hand saw. So let us have 

 more nests in our collections. 



Emerson A. Stoner. 



Ant Poison. 



With one gallon of cheap syrup mix 

 1-3 ounce of Arsenate of Soda. Soak 

 a sponge with the mixture and en- 

 close it in a paper bag, perforated to 

 admit the ants and paraflned to pro- 

 tect the poison from the rain, small 

 buckets or quart cans perforated near 

 the top, will do. Tack the bags up 

 where the ants will readily find them. 

 Two or three bags should be placed 

 in the infested territory. Replenish 

 the bags with the poison at frequent 

 intervals, as it is imperative that the 

 entire colony be killed or the remain- 

 ing ants will breed rapidly. If you 

 find a bird's nest infested by ants 

 place a few bags of poison where it 

 will do the most good, otherwise the 

 ants will eat the young birds. 



W. A. Strong. 

 San Jose, Cal. 



Blood Stains. 



If I had known what I do now, about 

 removing blood stains, I would have 

 a good many more specimens on hand. 

 One often hears or reads "Specimens 

 too shot up or perhaps, bloody to 

 save." Since I have used this method, 

 which may be old, but which is new 

 as far as I know, I have lost only one 

 specimen, from its being too bloody, 

 — an American Woodcock, whose head 

 was all but shot off. Of course if 

 feathers are riddles, or feet lost, this 

 method will not save your bird, but at 

 least try it on a bird which looks 

 hopelessly bloody. 



Take for instance, an Owl whose 

 facial disc is a mass of blood, and 

 whose eyes are shot to nothing. Fol- 

 low this course: Get some luke warm 

 water, several rags, plenty of cotton 

 and some Kingsford's Cornstarch. 

 Now dampen the face thoroughly with 

 water, and mop off as much of the 

 blood as possible; continue this pro- 

 cess until the feathers seem free from 



