Sept. 1890.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



139 



bird that had ksft tlie nest and was all feath- 

 ered out and able to fly three or four rods at a 

 time. Judj;ing from the time that it took for 

 the bird to mature, I think that the egg that 

 it hatched from must have been laid the last 

 of February or the first of March. I have 

 often seen their nests, after the eg^s had been 

 deposited, covered with snow to quite a depth, 

 wliioh generally causes them to forsake their 

 nest. But I have often found the bird clinging 

 to her treasures under quite a dei^th of snow. 

 I found three nests last spring, the first one 

 March 25, 1890. It contained two fresh eggs, 

 but a Hawk killed the bird on the nest and 

 devoured her on the spot before she had laid 

 her full set. The second nest was found 

 Afarch 27, 1890. It contained three eggs 

 slightly incubated; and the third nest was 

 found March 30, 1890. It contained three 

 fresh eggs. All of the nests were built in a 

 depression in the ground just dee^j enough so 

 that the top edge of the nest was just even 

 with the surface, and were all composed of 

 fiue grass and lined with a few feathers and 

 down from the bull-thistle. I hope that the 

 identification of these birds may soon be 

 settled beyond a doubt, for I know there are 

 many cabinets throughout the land that con- 

 tain these birds and their eggs, and some are 

 labeled "Horned liark" while others are 

 marked "Prairie Horned Lark," and one or 

 the other of them is surely marked wrong. 



James B. Purdy. 

 riymovUh, Wayne Co., Mich., Aug 4, 18:i0. 



Foot-rule and Scales. 



There is nothing better calculated to knock 

 tlie romance out of the enormous specimens of 

 fish, llesh and fowl that become the prey of 

 the hunter and fisherman than these two small 

 instruments — foot-rule and scales. 



Several "large" eagles have been mentioned 

 in the O. & O. at ditferent times and quite a 

 little discussion arose on the question of size. 

 I well remember the first eagle I ever 

 handled. He was alive, one wing being broken, 

 and by the time I had got him safely laid out 

 I began to speculate on his spread of wing. 

 The specimen was an adult " l)ald " and I 

 could not feel satisfied under seven and a half 

 or eight feet across the wings — sometiiing to 

 talk about. The foot-rule was introduced and 

 gave the returns as six feet six inches. 



A mucii larger adult specimen of tlie same 

 species was handled shortly after but circum- 



stances were such that I had no opportunity of 

 measuring. A conservative estimate would 

 have given this one some eight or eight and a 

 half feet spread. It was probably not over 

 seven. I got hold of another one that seemed 

 very large, this time an immature " bald," 

 second year I think. I fully expected seven 

 and a half feet this time; foot rule said six 

 feet nine inches. 



I was down the creek after Louisiana Water 

 Thrush nests last spring and came on a chicken 

 snake laying stretched out on the bare ground. 

 "Seven feet, or I'm a liar," I remarked to my- 

 self confidentially as my eye measured every 

 inch of his length. I fully believe that 

 anyone used to measuring snakes only by eye 

 would have estimated that one at seven and 

 a half or eight feet. It was an enormous 

 specimen for this region. It's correct length 

 by the foot-rule was five feet nine inches. 



I remember being told some years ago by a 

 man who had twice doubled Cape Horn in a 

 sailing ship, that the Albatrosses killed in the 

 Pacific and brought aboard ship measured 

 twenty-eight or thirty feet from tip to tip. 

 Science comes along with afoot-rule and says 

 they don't grow that large now-a-days. Con- 

 dors are or were popularly supposed to meas- 

 ure twelve or fifteen feet across the wings, but 

 collectors of these large specimens usually left 

 their foot-rule at home. 



I had a mean trick played on me the other 

 day. I was one of a small fishing party, and 

 on reaching the river and commencing opera- 

 tions one of the crowd produced a carpenter's 

 rule, and remarked that he was now ready to 

 record the size of all large fish caught, having 

 brought his instrument along in the interests 

 of truth. Among other things we caught agar 

 that was at least three feet long and would 

 have been recorded as such had not that miser- 

 able carpenter's rule said it was twenty-four 

 inches only. 



Winter before last I caught my first otter. I 

 was as proud as a dog with two tails, and sat 

 on a log and admired my game, good fashion, 

 before making any estimates. I knew very 

 well that the book size of an otter was four 

 feet and a half long, weight, twenty-five 

 pounds. Mine I estimated at four feet by 

 twenty pounds, but before I got home I 

 thought he weighed forty. Foot-rule said three 

 feet six inches, and scales .said fifteen pounds. 

 I have trapped a number of others since then 

 and can now estimate the size of an otter 

 pretty well. 



Early last spring I was crossing a ridge of 



