THE OOLOGIST. 



13 



best way of using it the first thing. 

 The force of air was so great that if the 

 bulb is quickly compressed it will burst 

 a hen's egg; while by lightly compress- 

 ing it one can blow the smallest egg 

 without breaking it, 



The valve works best when the tube 

 hangs straight down as it is more apt to 

 be in the right position. I used it with 

 perfect success during the past season 

 and can safely recommend it as an ex- 

 cellent method. 



T came almost forgetting to mention 

 that the syringe is very good for tilling 

 the eggs with water. When I had a lot 

 of eggs to blow I would blow them all 

 first, then fill them with water and 

 after emptying the sj'ringe blow the 

 water out again. 



Eggs can be blown through smaller 

 holes and in almost 2-3 less time than 

 by the old method. Quite large em- 

 bryos can also be blown out without 

 the aid of a hook. 



Hoping others will try this method 

 and report I will close. 



John V. Chone, 

 Marathon, Iowa. 



A Strange Occurrence- 



A few days since while talking with 

 one of the professors of the public 

 .schools here, he told me of a nest of the 

 Baltimore Oricjle {Ictertis galbnla), 

 which had fallen under his notice. The 

 nest was placed in a willow tree a few 

 feet from the ground, and was built in 

 the usual Avay. The willow ran straight 

 up for a few feet, then a large limb 

 branched off; another and a smaller 

 limb branched off of this one, and it 

 was on this limb that the nest was 

 placed. 



During a storm the weight of the nest 

 had caused the smaller limb to break 

 about midway between the nest and the 

 larger limb. This caused the nest to 

 hang down sideways and out of shape 

 so that the bird could not enter. To 



remedy this the bird had procured a 

 piece of string which it had wound 

 around the smaller limb at the nest and 

 on the side next the break, and in some 

 way fastened. The string was then 

 carried up over the larger limb and 

 down again to the lower one, where it 

 was drawn tight and wound around 

 and around and fastened. This drew 

 the smaller limb up to its old position 

 and left the nest so that the bird could 

 again enter it. The nest and limb are 

 now in the Richmond Ind. museum. 



While out collecting I took a sfet 

 with the nest of Wilson's Thrush {Hylo- 

 cichla fuscesccns), which had a string 

 woven into it, then carried up to a 

 limb above it, back again to the nest 

 and there fastened. 



Arthur J. Baker, 



Fortville, Ind. 



The Green Heron- 



The Green Heron docs not breed in 

 large numbers in this section. I have 

 never found over a dozen or fifteen 

 nests in one place or over one nest in a 

 tree. 



On May 30, 1890, a friend and I went 

 on a collecting trip with the following 

 results: 



A set of five, slightly incubated, in a 

 pine tree; a set of six, fresh, in a chest- 

 nut tree; two sets of five, too far ad- 

 vanced to take; two single eggs and 

 two nests with young in all; in pine 

 trees. 



On June 17th, we went to the same 

 place and got seven sets of four; a set 

 of five. Some of them came from the 

 same nests that 1 took .sets from before, 

 and one was in an oak tree. The nests 

 were all the way from ten to thirty feet 

 from the grountl. The were all in a 

 .small grove at the mouth of a small 

 harbor, close to Long Lsiaml Sound. 



All the nests I have collected were 

 near the water, and one was not over 

 fifty feet from the Sound. 



1). W. Raymond, 

 Norwalk, Ct. 



