THE OOLOGIST. 



29 



Messrs. Strong aud Sherin have both 

 taken sets here. Mr. Strong taking 

 three sets last season. One of the nests 

 which he gave nie looks very much, as 

 Langiile and Davie both say, like the 

 American Redstart's nest. My nest 

 measures, inside, 1^ inches in diameter 

 and H inches in depth. It is composed 

 of vegetable fibers, thistle down, string, 

 some silk cord, horse hair, one or two 

 long straws, and a little dried grass. 

 Mr. Strong found in one or two of the 

 nests libers from the milk-weed. The 

 eggs are out of proportion compared 

 with the size of the nest but would not 

 be apt to be confused with those of 

 other species when aceorn pannied with 

 nest. Most nests are placed about ten 

 feet from the grougd and often in the 

 young growth of trees along our river 

 bottoms; but Mr. Strong has found two 

 nests in orchard trees. Tiiey Ineed about 

 the lirst of June in this locality; genei-- 

 ally a little later. 



Edw' ARu P. Carlton, 

 Wauwatosa, Wis. 



Collecting in the Marsh. 



On May 11th, a friend and I started 

 up the Mississippi River in a small l)oat 

 for Spring Lake to look for water birds' 

 eggs. After a hard row of five miles, 

 we aiTived at the lake at 11 o'clock a. 

 m. We then proceeded to the head of 

 the lake and arrived there at noon. 

 After eating our dinner we left the 

 boat and began to wade among the 

 rushes. I had not gone very far before 

 I flushed a Sora Rail. I found the nest 

 at the foot of a clump of rushes. It 

 contained ten eggs. The nest was 

 made of last year's reeds and lined with 

 a few small pieces of the leaves of the 

 surrounding rushes. It was very com- 

 pact and did not look large enough to 

 iiold all the eggs as some of them were 

 piled on top of the others. 



After wading around for some time I 

 found a Marsh Hawk's nest containing 



tive young birds and an egg. Some of 

 the birds were quite large and showed 

 tight. I took the egg which I after- 

 ward found to be rotten. B3' this time 

 I began to feel a little tired so we got 

 into the boat and started back. 



On the way down I found two Flori- 

 da Gallilunes' nests with seven eggs in 

 each nest. The nests were built in a 

 clump of rushes and were composed of 

 last year's rushes, and were lined with 

 the leaves of the same. The eggs were 

 a creamy-butf, thickly spotted with 

 dark brown and umber. 



Several Black Ten.s Lcgan Hying 

 around xis uttering sharp cries. i 

 thought tiiey must have ucsts an(^l 

 began to search for them. After 

 searching awhile we collected a set of 

 three aud a set of two eggs. Also two 

 singles. Tiie nests were on decayed 

 vegetable matter and sunken muskrat 

 houses, aud I found one egg on a 

 stump. A few pieces of rushes were 

 ou the nests to keep the eggs from roll- 

 ing off. Eggs were all fresh. 



We had not paddled very fir when 

 my friend found an American Coot's 

 nest containing seven eggs. They were 

 a creamy-W'hite uniformly spotted with 

 dark brown aud black This lake is a 

 favoriie breeding place for these birds. 

 Where the water is clear it is "black" 

 with them. It is quite a sight for the 

 collector when they leave the water. 

 We found a large number of their nests. 

 Some of the birds would not leave the 

 nest until we could nearly touch theru 

 with a paddle. 



Next we found several nests of the 

 Pied-billed Gi'ebe. The usual number 

 of eggs in a nest was seven, soujctimes 

 only six. Most of the eggs were cover- 

 ed w ith green vegetable matter. 



Among other l)irds that abound here 

 are the Yellow-headed Bhu-kbird.-. We 

 collected quite a number of these eggs. 



A larger numl)er of Ducks breed here, 

 but we were not enaliled to find any ou 

 that day; altliough I have found Ihem 

 before. 



