July 1887.] 



A^D OOLOGIST. 



113 



the advanced sets and the great majoi-ity of the 

 nests with young examined held four. Fresh 

 sets were told by a slight roughness, apparent 

 by lightly running the finger tips over the sur- 

 face. The series was of marked uniformity in 

 size and shape and quite uniform in color. No 

 egg liadan excess of pigment nor did anj' clutch 

 approach the white tj'pe. Nests holding lusty 

 5'oung, which were probably built in cold April 

 weather, were large, substantial and well-hol- 

 lowed structures; while those just built, were 

 of the summer style of ai-chitecture, or flat 

 form type and the eggs could be seen from 

 below. 



On first entering the swamp, I climbed iso- 

 lated trees, but soon learning to group my 

 nests would ascend only for three or more sets. 

 To show how Floridian was the quantity of 

 eggs here, I will add that I came down repeat- 

 edly with thirteen eggs in my baskets, and on 

 my last ascension could look around on the 

 adjacent trees and count forty-five eggs. 



The white of a heron's egg is apt to be leath- 

 ery when cooked, but the yolk is i)alatable and 

 at the proper age the young birds are good for 

 the table. 



By sailors and the shore-dwellers the birds 

 are only known as "Quawks," and the lovely 

 Snowy Herons seen here spaiingly on the mi- 

 grations are called '"White Quawks." One 

 year, when the whole season was forward and 

 the migrations early, I recorded this commu- 

 nity of waders in full breeding activity Maj"^ 

 6th; the young were shortly reared, and there 

 was a fair proportion of second elutc'hes June 

 4th. As the young are out of the nests before 

 the summer excursionists swarm these shores, 

 and the wanton shooter now tneets with legal 

 discouragement, this heronry bids fair to keep 

 up its numbers for many years. 



Nesting of the ^A(^hip-poo^-Will. 



BY WM. L. KELLS, ONTARIO, CANADA. 



On the afternoon of May 19th, 1886, my son 

 and myself took a nest-hunting ramble in the 

 wild woods to the north-west of Listowel. The 

 wind had been verj^ high in the earlier part of 

 the day, and it was not until after 2, p. m., 

 that we concluded to start for the forest, and 

 after about an hour we found ourselves ap- 

 proaching the region of our destination, the 

 high, hard-wood timbered laud, some distance 

 on the west of Wild Wood. For some time our 



search led to no discovery worthy of note. 

 The trees were putting forth the emerald foli- 

 age of summer; the woodland birds were in 

 full song and on every side their appearance 

 and melodies gave a charm to the senses of 

 sight and sound. 



Api)roaching a place where the underwood 

 was low and thick, we heard the delightful 

 song notes of the Wood Thiush {Hylocirhla 

 mustelinu), from its deep shade, and on pene- 

 trating this its nest was soon discovered, placed 

 in the fork of a small maple, with the female 

 bird seated thereon. This contained four eggs, 

 which showed that incubation had been several 

 days in progress. Soon the notes of a Kose- 

 breasted Grosbeak fell upon my ear, and 1 di- 

 rected my son to look for its nest. In a few 

 moments he called out that he had found it 

 Going to the spot, however, I found that it was 

 not the nest of a Grosbeak that he had discov- 

 ered but that of a Hermit Thrush, {HtjJucicMa 

 unalascoi paUasi). This was placed on some 

 dry sticks near the ground, but among low- 

 bushes, where it was pretty well hid by the 

 newly formed leaves, and tliough its set of 

 eggs was but three, 1 found that they had been 

 several days incubated. A few yards from this 

 the nest of the Grosbeak was discovered in a 

 small underwood, about eight feet from the 

 ground, and containing four beautiful eggs. 

 Having secured these, I directed my sou to cir- 

 cle around the western edge of the thicket, 

 while I took the other side, intending to meet 

 him on the southern margin. We had nearly 

 circled the thicket and were but a few rods dis- 

 tant from each other, when I was startled by 

 the glimpse of a Whip-poor-will {Caprimuhjus 

 vociferus) ^ rising almost at my feet, and after a 

 short, fluttering flight it alighted on au old log- 

 near where my son was. On being again 

 flushed she disappeared into the thick under- 

 wood. I gave a shout of exultation, for on 

 gazing at the spot where the bird arose I dis- 

 covered two beautiful eggs; the first of this 

 species that 1 had ever seen in a state of nature. 

 There had been no attempt at nest making on 

 the part of the bird ; the eggs were laid on a 

 few dry leaves that lay flat on the earth, as 

 they had fallen from the trees the autumn be- 

 fore and had been pressed down by the winter's 

 snow. Near by were several small underwood, 

 whose green leaves cast an agreeable shade ov- 

 er the nesting spot, while high overhead the 

 branches and foliage of some monarch of the 

 wood swayed and fluttered in the breeze. 



These eggs are about one and a (xuarter of an 

 inch in length, by eighty-eight hundreths of au 



