THE OOLOGIST 



127 



gretted my foolhardiness for plunging 

 the horses into the mudhole, but that 

 feeling took the wings of the wind at 

 the sight of the four beauties in the 

 nest. And it was only a chance out of 

 a thousand, as I am confident that the 

 bird would have never exposed her 

 treasures if we had been even a half 

 a dozen steps away from her. So 

 closely she sat that one of the horses 

 had passed the nest within two feet 

 of it and yet she did not raise until 

 my "whoa" scared her and at the same 

 time one of the heavy wheels threat- 

 ened to crush both her and her treas- 

 ures. The parent bird did not pretend 

 to be lame like most of shorebirds do 

 when anyone is approaching the nest, 

 but stood on the ground nearby giv- 

 ing one a splendid opoortunity for 

 making the identification perfectly cer- 

 tain. In a little while the male bird 

 came along and aided by his consort, 

 he gave me a short lecture in the 

 "kew-kew" language of his own. 



The nest was just a depression in 

 the moss, with a few bits of ivy grass 

 as a lining. It had no shelter what- 

 ever, as a fire had swept over the 

 place about a month previous to the 

 finding of the nest so that there was 

 not even grass growing anywhere near 

 the nest. 



The eggs were badly incubated but 

 by drilling the holes rather larger 

 than the average and taking plenty of 

 time and using great care, I succeed- 

 ed in making first class cabinet speci- 

 mens of them. They are pear-shaped 

 with rather a glossv surface and meas- 

 ure as follows: 1.77x1.17, 1.73x1.18. 

 1.73 x 1.19 and 1.74 x 1.21. The ground 

 color is about the same as that on the 

 eggs of the Spotted Sandpiper; the 

 spots are very dark brown and chest- 

 nut, with small, bluish-gray clouds un- 

 derneath them. The smaller dots are 

 evenly distributed over the entire sur- 

 face of the eggs, the larger ones are 

 all on the larger ends. 



I am of the opinion that this is the 

 first authentic set of eggs of the Great- 

 er Yellow-legs ever dir covered in Man- 

 itoba, leaving out, of course, the so- 

 called Keewatin district, which has re- 

 cently been added to the province and 

 which brings our new boundaries to 

 the shores of Hudson's Bay. 



Ernest S. Norman. 



The Killdeer is Not Afraid. 

 I had frequently to walk over a cer- 

 tain stretch of the St. Paul railroad 

 near Columbus, Wis., all this spring, 

 and at about the time of working up 

 the fields a pair of Killdeer disturbed 

 in the fields I always started up on 

 the track. I half suspected there was 

 a nest, but could never surprise the 

 bird, she would always see me and get 

 up long before I got near her. Finally 

 one day I almost stepped on the nest. 

 It contained three eggs, so I did not 

 disturb it as I wanted a complete set, 

 if I collected them at all. The nest 

 was of gravel; that is, a hollow 

 scratched in the gravel and well lined 

 with roots of dry grass, placed be- 

 tween the tracts four and one-half feet 

 from the main rails and three and one- 

 half feet from the siding rail ; why this 

 wild bird of the prairie selected this 

 place for a home, where multiplied 

 dozens of mile-long heavy freight 

 trains thundered by all through the 

 day and night and where scores of 

 long, heavy passenger trains tore by 

 at terrific speed, throughout the 

 twenty-four hours, and besides hun- 

 dreds of "hobos" tramped every day, 

 called thither by the coming season, 

 why this bird nested here I could not 

 make up my mind. It was not far 

 from a switch, so I decided to collect 

 it, and when the fourth egg was laid, 

 I collected nest and eggs, 26th of this 

 year. Geo. W. H. vos Burgh. 



July 7, 1915. 



