10 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 15-No. 1 



A Day's Egging in an Illinois Swamp. 



On June "), 18S7, a friend and myself went 

 to a swamp near Lacon, 111., wliicli is a succes- 

 sion itf lakes from one to two miles long by 

 alxuit six to eight hundred yards wide, and 

 with marsliy ridges of land. The whole cov- 

 ers a space of nearly ten scjuare miles, and is 

 interspersed with small and shallow ponds 

 grown up with weeds and rushes, patches of 

 large timber and small loamy creeks — in fact 

 a i)aradise for water and other birds. In tliis 

 swamp in the early spring I have found nests 

 of the Bald Eagle (Ilalkeet.ufi leucorejilKdiis), 

 lled-Tailed Hawk {liitteo hnrcalis), Cooper's 

 Hawk {Arrtpifer coopcvl). Long-eared Owl 

 (Ax'k) irils(nti((uiis), I3aried Owl {Si/i-iiiiiiii iwhii- 

 /o,s((;«), and (xreat Horned Owl (Hiflxt rir<ii)i- 

 /Vr/nf.s). There is also a small heronry near 

 the upper end, and Swami) Warblers are very 

 identiful, as are also the Swallows and Vireos. 



We entered by a small creek full of dead 

 stumps, and had hardly jiroceeded up it a 

 hundred yards when the first lind of the day 

 was made, and a very curious one \t was too. 

 A stumj) had been broken off above the water 

 leaving (piite a cavity in one sicU-, and a King- 

 bird {l\i/nituiitfi li/i-iiiuins) liad taken ]iossession 

 of this and made its nest and laid tliree eggs. 

 'IMiere she was down in a liole just as much at 

 home apparently as though she ha<l been a 

 Woodpecker or an Owl. We IJiought this 

 was a ratlier (pieer place for a Kingbird to nest 

 and passe<l on leaving her alone. 



We now pushed up the <'reek, both sides of 

 which were covered with rushes, to where the 

 creek came out of the swamp, and there a sight 

 uH't our eyi's which woidd make a bii'd lover"s 

 heart glad, for si)read out before us was a level 

 expanse of Hags, rushes, etc.. about a mile 

 in diameter, and the watei' was from ten 

 iuclies to tliree feet dee]), with heie and there 

 a small slu-et of water of about an acre in 

 extent nearly free from reeds or vegetation of 

 any kind. Tlie whole landscape seemed liter- 

 ally alive with birds. Long-billed Marsh Wrens 

 (('istoflinrns pdhiKffiN). Yellow-headi'd lUack- 

 birds { X<iitllnic('i>li(lhix .rdiilliorcplnlhis), IJed- 

 winged IJlackbirds (A(/('l((iii.s plitfnircux), 

 (;reat Ulue Herons (Ardca licvixlinx), American 

 Hitterns (nohniritK Icnt'Kjhtoxiis.) Least Bitterns 

 ( lidhiiiriis c.r///.s),< 'oots {Fiilira (imerhutua), Hor- 

 idi (ialliuules (fTalliiuiliKjdlfdfd), Pied-billed 

 Grebes (Podllijinbui^ j)odlr('i)ti), and Ducks of 

 several kinds were to be seen in a ft^w nu)- 

 ments' observation from the boat. We i)ushed 

 through the reeds to a large i>atch of bulrushes 



and then stuck, as the vegetation was too 

 much for us. 



AVe had on rubber boots that came up to our 

 knees, but the water was about two and a half 

 feet dee]). I was carefully testing its dejith 

 when I got in over the toji of my boots, so I 

 waded on, and had hardly i)roceeded twenty 

 feet from the boat when I sawasusj^icious look- 

 ing bunch of I'eeds. and on examining it closer 

 I found that it contained a set of Floiida (ial- 

 linule's eggs. My friend was ojijiosed to getting 

 wet, but when he saw those he lost no time in 

 tumbling out of the boat also. He soon found 

 a C'oot's nest with six eggs, and a set of three 

 eggs of the Black Tern {fli/drorhelidon n'Kjni 

 siniiiaiiifunix) next fell to my lot. We both 

 ])ushed forward and I succeeded in finding 

 numerous sets of eggs of Coots, (4allinules, 

 Black Terns, Least Bii:terus. an I Long-billed 

 Marsh Wrens' eggs, but nothing rare. 



At noon we come bat-k to the boat and found 

 we had collected six sets of eggs of Florida 

 fTallinvde (tour sets of eight and twosets of six) : 

 seven sets of Coot (two of seven and live of 

 six); three sets of Least Bittern (one of five 

 and three of four), and two sets of Long-billed 

 Marsh Wren of seven, and one of five. 



In the afternoon we went deejier into the 

 swam]), got lost, and were rained on by the 

 hardest rain I ever saw; and we had nothing 

 to cover us but the reeds — a very jioor shell ei'. 



Although we made a great hiuit that after- 

 noon we could find nothing new. We would 

 scare an American I>ittern. and on going to the 

 l)lace from which it arose in the ex])ectation of 

 finding its nest we only met with disajJi^oint- 

 ment. Neither could we find a single Grebe's 

 nest. I also wanted ])articularly to find the 

 nest of the Yellow-headed Blackbird, but 

 signally failed, for alth(uigh theie were ])lcnty 

 of birds we could not find any of their eggs. 



The Coots seemed to be more i)arfial to the 

 ])laces where the reeds weie very tall and 

 dense, whih' the (iallinules would build in the 

 more oi)en si)aces; sometimes they were found 

 where you could see their nests fo.- seventy- 

 five yards. 



The nests of the Least Bitterns were all 

 made of sticks, and i)laccd amongst the dens- 

 est of the reeds rarely nutre than a foot above 

 the water. Their nests were in all cases found 

 well (uit in the lake and none were near tin' 

 maigin. 



We found the usual number of emi)ty nests 

 of the Long-billed Marsh Wren and only 

 about one in four contained eggs. 



Lticoii. III. /'. ^f■ liiinies. 



