THE OOLOGIST 



149 



We happened to look down in the 

 boat, and there we found about four 

 feet of old rope tied to an old anchor. 

 By putting the anchor over the end of 

 one of the oars, we hooked it in the 

 hollow, and I started up hand over 

 hand, but — to our sad luck, the rope 

 snapped in two, leaving the remaining 

 ten inches in my hand, and the other 

 three feet and the anchor fell down in 

 the bottom of the cavity. Then we 

 were guessing again how to get up. 



Raymon, after putting his wooden 

 brain to work, suggested stacking 

 some life belts, which we always car- 

 ried along, up on the hood of the boat, 

 by doing this it put me up about four 

 feet. Then I held to the trunk until 

 Raymon could get under me where I 

 could stand on his shoulders, then I 

 could hold the hollow with one hand 

 and pulled myself up where I could 

 look down in it. And lo and behold, 

 after all this hard brain v/ork and 

 labor, there was nothing in it but the 

 bottom, and the pieces of rope and the 

 anchor that fell over in it. Tough luck 

 again. In my haste to get down on 

 account of my hold growing tiresome, 

 I forgot to remove the obstacles that 

 fell in the hollow. 



Tired, scratched up and perspiring, 

 we drifted on down through the woods 

 meeting with very little luck. Getting 

 back to camps late in the evening. 



On the 12th of March, found us back 

 at the same hollow. On approaching 

 when the boat hit the stub, nothing 

 came out, but a few raps with an oar 

 soon brought Mrs. Barred Owl out in 

 a hurry. This time we were prepared 

 to get to the top, as we brought along 

 some cleats, nails and a hatchet. It 

 took only a few minutes to nail the 

 cleats on. Then I was on my way to- 

 wards the apex. 



Upon looking down in the hollow, 

 what should greet my eyes, but that 

 anchor pushed to one side, and the 



rope coiled up, and in the middle of 

 it was a well incubated set of three 

 eggs. 



I sure was surprised to find a .set 

 of eggs in this one hollow. Because; I 

 thought by this junk being in the bot- 

 tom, would interrupt their actions. 



But at any rate, they added the first 

 set of Barred Owls to my collection. 

 This one also being the .first set of 

 eggs collected in and around Port 

 Worth this year. 



The stub which contained this hol- 

 low, was located a quarter of a mile 

 from the nearest bank, and ■ was in 

 twenty feet of water. 



Earl B.- Moffat. 

 Fort Worth, Tex. 



Redpoll on Bloomfield, New Jersey, pn 

 February 12th, 1916. 

 Two male Redpolls and five females 

 were observed at Bloomfield, Ess^x 

 County, New Jersey, on the above da|;e 

 by the writer, at noon, in a small copse 

 of sassafras near the southern end of 

 the town. When first observed, this 

 flock was perched among the lower 

 branches of the saplings in this growth 

 and then soon all descended to the 

 ground and began feeding upon the 

 seeds of the dead vegetation about. 

 Later on during the after,noon one 

 male and two females were -again seen 

 near this copse feeding on the ground. 

 This is the first record the writer has 

 made of this species since March 5, 

 1905, in this county. 



Louis S.' Kohler.; 



Raleus Elegans. 



America's great Ornithologist, Au 

 dubon, called or rather named this the 



"King Rail" 

 and he was well aware that this wjis 

 the appropriate name for this harid- 

 pome bird. 



The upper parts are brown or brown- 

 ish black; the feathers margined with 



