112 



THE OOLOGIST 



they would return time after time to a 

 good feeding ground even though 

 fired at again and again. — The Class- 

 mate. W. A. Strong. 

 San Jose, Cal. 



We recently had offered to us two 

 sets of four eggs of the Knot taken 

 some years ago in Northeast Green- 

 land within the Arctic Circle, which 

 shows how rare such specimens are. 

 — Editor. 



The Loon — On Plum Lake, Wis. 



(Gavia Immer) 



Nest found July 6, 1914, on top of 

 old muskrat house, just a slight de- 

 pression in top, eggs, two in number, 

 half in water. Water about foot and 

 half deep around nest in ten feet from 

 shore. Mother slid off nest when we 

 were still one-euarter of a mile away. 

 Eggs well incubated. One of the 

 young Loons in the egg was making 

 a small noise like the mother, could 

 be distinctly heard without holding to- 

 the ear. 



Second nest found August 15, 1914, 

 on island, in middle of lake, under 

 some bushes, just a slight depression, 

 two very pretty but rotten eggs. 

 Mother must have killed or deserted 

 for some reason. One egg broke and 

 I have the other which is a very fine 

 specimen. Dudley De Groot. 



A Cuckoo Mixup. 



Have seen a number of notes on the 

 nesting of the Black-billed and Yel- 

 low-billed Cuckoos in the same nest 

 but none of quite like my experience 

 of June 26th. While on my way to 

 the possible site of a rare Warbler 

 passed through a patch of alders and 

 high bush of blue berries and in one of 

 the berry bushes was the nest of a 

 Cuckoo. 



At first glance took the two birds 

 on the nest to be young nearly full 

 grown as it would be time for them 



to be so, but on closer inspection 

 found one of the birds to be an adult 

 Black-billed and the other an adult 

 Yellow-billed Cuckoo. One bird faced 

 one way and the other the opposite. 

 Both birds remained on the nest until 

 I came to within five feet of it and the 

 Yellow-billed being nearest me I saw 

 that she was trying to cover two of 

 her own eggs while the Black-billed 

 had one of her own and one of the 

 Yellow-bills. The eggs were close to- 

 gether so that neither bird fully cov- 

 ered them, yet they were incubated 

 about a week. The nest itself must 

 have been made by the Yellow-billed 

 as three of the four eggs were hers. 



Now the average date here for both 

 birds is May 30th so they are fully two 

 weeks late in that respect. Also the 

 Yellow-billed is not near so common 

 as the other and one or two eggs, 

 rather than three is the common set 

 while three and four would be an aver- 

 age set for the Black-billed. Both spe- 

 cies are very destructive; eating eggs 

 and young of all birds up to their size 

 and one need not look for anything 

 in the vicinity of a Cuckoo's nest. 



Roscoe T. Giles. 



The California Cuckoo. 

 In the June OOLOGIST I find no 

 reference to the article in the May is- 

 sue entitled "Home of California 

 Cuckoo Discovered." None of the ad- 

 vanced oologists have taken the trou- 

 ble to correct the erroneous impres- 

 sion that article conveys to the young- 

 er students who lack the advantages 

 of sufficient ornithological literature. 

 The fact is that we are tolerably well 

 acquainted with the summer home 

 and nesting habits of this cuckoo and 

 ignorant only of its winter range. I 

 have no intention of going deeply into 

 the matter and so merely submit some 

 data taken from the Condor but not all 

 the data therein pertaining to this 



