THE OOLOGIST 



163 



Long may you ride down mountain 

 side 

 With lieart tliat ne'er sliall fail, 

 Long may you call from canyon wall, 

 You Spirit of the Gale. 



D. I.Shepardson. 

 Los Angeles, Cal. 



Collecting Kingfisher Eggs. 



I have read with interest in recent 

 numbers of THE OOLOGIST articles 

 on collecting Kingfisher eggs and 

 would like to add a method of my own 

 to the list. 



Any eggs that are laid at the end 

 of a fairly straight tunnel as Swallows, 

 etc., can be collected this way. As a 

 rule these eggs are difficult to collect 

 in fresh sets as being at the end of 

 a small tunnel. It is hard to tell when 

 the set is a complete fresh one, unless 

 the hole is dug into and this is almost 

 sure to make the birds leave the nest. 



1 overcome this pretty well by the 

 following method. First I get two mir- 

 rors, one small one, the other any 

 large hand mirror. Next I fasten a 

 piece of wire a few inches long on the 

 end of a long stick or cane and slip 

 the wire through a small slit cut in 

 the paper back of the smaller mirror 

 and bend the wire so it will be about 

 45 degrees with the stick. 



Thrust the cane with the mirror 

 end first into the nest hole and by 

 flashing' sunlight on the smaller mir 

 ror from the larger one which is held 

 in the hand on the out side it is very 

 easy, especially if the hole is only 4-7 

 feet deep, to see the eggs by looking 

 in the small mirror which being bent 

 at an angle forms a very good "peri- 

 scope." As the sunlight is flashed on 

 the eggs at the same time it is pos- 

 sible to tell if the eggs are fresh or 

 not. This way I have been able to 

 see what was at the end of a few such 

 nests, some of them pretty long ones. 

 Edwin Guy. 

 Camden, S. C. 



A February Day Afield. 



On the 6th of February, 1916, Mr. 

 B. S. Taubenhaus and the writer made 

 a trip on foot through the lower half 

 of Passaic County, New Jersey, start- 

 ing at Totowa and journeying through 

 Laurel Grove, Little Falls, Lower 

 Preakness, Preakness, Upper Preak- 

 ness and to and around Pompton Lake, 

 a jaunt of approximately twenty miles. 



The ground was covered with about 

 five inches of wet snow at the out- 

 start, but, as the day wore on, this 

 rapidly decreased because of the ris- 

 ing temperature. 



In all, twenty species of birds were 

 observed. This number is about ten 

 species less than is usually met with 

 in this section at this period of the 

 year, but, on the other hand, a num- 

 ber of species were present which are 

 worthy of more than passing interest. 



Below is an annotated list of the 

 species observed and a few remarks 

 pertaining to them: 



Mourning Dove — At Preakness, five 

 of this species were observed perching 

 in an apple tree about fifty feet from 

 the roadside. As we approached them 

 they flew off to another tree at the 

 center of a large open field. This rec- 

 ord is the only one which the writer 

 has made of this species in New Jer- 

 sey during the past decade and a half 

 during the month of February. 



Marsh Hawk — One was recorded at 

 Little Falls and one at Preakness. 



Cooper Hawk — One was seen flying 

 over the northern end of Pompton 

 Lake during the afternoon near sun- 

 set. 



Red-shouldered Hawk — One was ob- 

 at Little Falls and one at Upper 

 Preakness. 



Sparrow Hawk. — One was ob- 

 served near Laurel Grove Cemetery 

 during the early morning. Another 

 specimen was seen at this same spot 

 on Sunday, January 30th. This wag 

 probably the same bird. 



