18 



THE OOLOGIST 



Some of his eggeries are very beau- 

 tiful as well as extensive — especially 

 those of the Osprey, Bald Eagle and 

 Alpamado Falcon. The most inter- 

 esting part to me though, were the 

 native Pennsylvania eggs. 



A delightful walk was taken to a 

 Pileated Woodpecke's nest, where, in 

 a great tree, I viewed a startlingly 

 large entrance where doubtless the 

 magnificent birds would have nested, 

 were it not for the lumbermen disturb- 

 ing them. I visited the class which 

 Prof. Dickey has — an interesting set 

 of twenty-five boys and girls, who, 

 under the able guidance of their 

 teacher are now astonishingly inter- 

 ested in their Avian neighbors. 



On the whole, Waynesburg could 

 better be called Eggsburg, or some 

 such name, the place is so thorough- 

 ly alive with bird people, and birds 

 themselves. 



George Miksch Suttard. 



Least Tern. 



A friend of mine discovered a col- 

 ony of Least Terns breeding at Pacific 

 Beach, San Diego, June 29th, 1913, 

 and told me about them, so the 6th of 

 July I rode my bicycle out there, a 

 distance of about twelve miles, arriv- 

 ing there about nine o'clock in the 

 morning. I found a colony of about 

 one thousand pairs of birds breeding 

 all the way from Pacific Beach down 

 to False Bay, a distance of about three 

 miles Back of the beach lie the Sand 

 Hills. Some were nesting on the 

 beach back of the highwater mark in 

 little groups of ten or twelve pairsn 

 while others were nesting among the 

 sand hills in places like miniature des- 

 erts surrounded by sand dunes. There 

 were two pairs of Snow Plovers in 

 this place with nests containing two 

 and three eggs respectively. The two 

 being fresh while the three were well 

 along. This I consider late for Plover. 



The largest colony were nesting 

 at the entrance to False Bay on a 

 wide stretch of beach. About five 

 hundred birds were breeding here. 

 The air was just full of them when 

 disturbed, screaming and flying over 

 head. My shirt was whitewashed 

 from the droppings when I was ready 

 to go home. They were continually 

 carrying in small sardines to their 

 young; this place being an ideal nest- 

 ing sight on account of its close prox- 

 imity to False Bay, which is very shal- 

 low, a fine place for food. The nest 

 contained from one to two eggs in 

 all stages of incubation. Of about 

 three hundred nests looked at, I didn't 

 see any sets of three eggs; while there 

 were a good many nests containing 

 three young birds, which are very 

 handsome little fellows. I regretted 

 very much not having a camera to 

 take some photos. The night of the 

 4th was an exceedingly high tide, 

 which washed out lots of the nests 

 here, washing the eggs and young 

 which were near the surf back higher 

 on the beach, destroying lots of nests 

 which are mere depressions scratched 

 cut by the birds, some having a few 

 strands of sea weed in them, others 

 nothing. There is a great variation in 

 the immaculation of the sets. 



E. E. Sechrist. 



Black and White Warblers. 

 One hot dusty day in June I found 

 myself cultivating corn with my team 

 of favorites. Along towards noon I 

 became thirsty, so I tied up to the 

 fence near where the field cornered 

 against some heavy timber; I climb- 

 ed over the fence, (may the devil get 

 the person who invented barbed wire), 

 just as I landed, a bird got out, right 

 by my feet and fluttered away among 

 the grass and bushes. I instantly 

 marked the place where she got up 

 and followed her until I made out it 



