THR OREGON NATURALIST. 



57 



been?" "I went fi-i i isliing and fell 

 overboard." What a lie ! When this 

 eventful day had past and night set 

 in, and when I was clad in dry, clean 

 clothes I could look back with pleas- 

 i:re on the adventures of the day. 



My next visit to this swamp was 

 some time in late May — I had no note 

 book then, didn't want any, wouldn't 

 have known what to do with it had I 

 have one — and if I had had one — and 

 if I remember correctly we took .some- 

 thing like 500 eggs of the Little Blue 

 Heron and one or two sets of Anhinga 

 and Green Heron. In June another 

 party went out there and took about 

 forty eggs, evidently the third trial at 

 nest of some of the birds. 



In 1894 I again visited the swamp 

 and took some eggs of the Little Blue, 

 Snowy and Anhinga. 



1895 — This season the Herons 

 changed their nesting site and went 

 over to another thick part of the 

 swamp. Here I took about 200 eggs 

 of Little Blue and Snowy Herons. ^4 

 X and 1-5 Anhinga, and the boy with 

 me took 1-5 and ^j same. Red Egret 

 % and Vi Green Heron %, and Fla. 

 Blue Jay % . The sets of Heron ranged 

 from 3 to 4. Later on another partj' 

 of boys went in there and took about 



150 eggs- 



1896 — I took on the 3rd of March a 

 fine set of five Wards Heron and acol- 

 ector with me a set of four. Quite 

 unfortunately he broke an egg in his 

 set' There was another nest in a tall 

 cypress which I did not climb to as j 

 had not brought my climbers with 

 me. 



On the evening of April the 2otli 

 1 rented a horse an«l buggy and made 



my second visil to the swamp. On 

 the way I picked up a negro boy. 

 He was to hold the horse for me. 

 When 1 reached the old oak I prepared 

 to go in by putting on my wading 

 clothes This done, I asked the boy, 

 who was 14 3'ears of age, if he wanted 

 to go in with me. He did, so we 

 started in. He soon found it too deep 

 for him, so said he would remain 

 there. I went on to the rookerj' and 

 began ni}' collecting. Most of the 

 nests contained three, so I left them 

 and took on\y sets of four, and to ni}' 

 great delight and surprise three sets of 

 five. I had never before seen a set of 

 five, so I prize them highly. It took 

 some time to collect and mark the sets 

 so it was getting along toward dark 

 befoie I finished. After an omnious 

 silence of about an hour, from the 

 direction of the boy I heard him cry- 

 ing, so I called. He begged me to 

 come to him as he was "scared." I 

 told him that I would be there in a 

 few minutes and that nothing would 

 trouble him and to go out if he chose. 

 He said he did not know the way, so 1 

 told him to climb a tree. These were 

 wasted words as he was already up 

 one. Silence reigned a few minutes 

 then came another call. So out of 

 pity for him, as the sun was sinking 

 in the west and frogs commenced to 

 cioak, making it a dismal place to be 

 in, I stopped collecting and went to 

 him. We went out. I put on dry 

 clothes and packed my eggs carefully 

 and went home. I had some iS sets 

 of Little Blue Heron. 



May 2d my notes read, "I went to 

 Heron Swamp today, to take incom- 

 plete sets of the 30th ultimo. In 



