173 



THE OOLOGIST. 



linued to breed in the same situations, 

 but was from the fact that I was too 

 late in my rounds, and some other col- 

 lectors had stolen a march on me. 



One year, I think it was 1884, May 

 24th and 25th, I took four sets in the 

 two days trip; walking fully forty-four 

 miles and rowing and paddling ten or 

 fifteen more. I have often tlept out on 

 these trips, though I have usually timed 

 myself so as to sleep at the house of a 

 friendly farmer. 



One year 18S5, two of us took the' 

 rounds with a horse, and the result was 

 six eggs. This was so pleasant a trip 

 that I have thought of offering an ac- 

 count of it to your readers — and will in 

 my narration give you the general de- 

 tails of our outing, as we may call i!, 

 for we do not get out very often, and, 

 therefore, when we go collecting, we 

 always take our fish poles, or rods, as 

 they call them now days. 



Perhaps you will not feel like publish- 

 ing i his squib,, Mr. Editor, after read- 

 ing it, as it is too much like a fishing 

 excursion to suit the make up of your 

 critical magazine. However, if you 

 will allow me to explain, I will say 

 there are two reasons for this depar- 

 ture. First — it will be plain to all that 

 there is a good opportunity, as instanc- 

 ed in this ti*ip, to combine the collect- 

 ing fad, together with work for the 

 note book, with a successful fishing out- 

 ing, and good time generally. Second- 

 ly there has been so much of a same- 

 ness in the large majority of articles in 

 your publication of late, that I am in- 

 clined to offer a protest — and perhaps 

 thereby stimulate your large concourse 

 of writers to further strive toward that 

 degree of excellence, which you are 

 bound to achieve in the long run. 



We started at 4 a. m., May 20th, with 

 our old buggy loaded to the gunwale 

 fore and aft. Tent, chuck, fixins, rods, 

 blankets and all the rest of the duffle 

 which constitutes a proper short camp- 

 ing trip outfit — neither forgetting a bag 



of oats for Kit, and a box of beautiful,, 

 lively, red angle worms for the hungry 

 fish. 



Reached Gull Lake, t.welve miles dis- 

 tant, before seven o'clock and rowed 

 about the likely spots, but never had a 

 sight of a Loon. The birds have left- 

 this grand lake or, at least do not ap- 

 pear there regularly. Too many col- 

 lectors reach this water and the birds 

 have left for other quarters to nest. 



Secured a number of eggs of marsh 

 birds, such as sets of Carolina Rail, 

 Long-billed Wrens, etc. Then hitched 

 up and visited successively Indian and 

 Gilkey lakes and several large ponds in 

 an adjoining county, but without suc- 

 cess, so far as the desired articles were 

 concerned, although we caught a nice 

 lot of calico ba^s. 



Finally reached Crooked Lake, where 

 we gave the mare another rest, and 

 went on the water. We soon heard a- 

 Loon's weird, quavering utterance and 

 not long after saw three birds in one 

 section of the water. This did not prove 

 anything but it gave us hope, and, as 

 my companion said 'the bail was open- 

 ed ' Not an inapt term either when we- 

 consider the bubbling notes of the 

 Loon as compai'ed to the rippling bursts 

 of the clai'ionette, as the baud tunes up. 



The birds cften nest on small lakes 

 and feed on large ones, sometimes to 

 quite a distance, so that we were never 

 sure of finding a nest unless we visited 

 all the lak^s in the vicinity. We 

 were sure of just one thing by the ap- 

 pearance of those Loons — viz, that there 

 were two pairs of birds, at least visit- 

 ing somewhere in that section. 



We spent four hours and over hunt- 

 ing through the likely portions of the 

 lake, but without success, although we 

 took several sets of Gallinules and 

 Rails eggs. Finally we discovered the 

 nest in the usual situation, an old bog, 

 out from the shore ten rods or more. 

 The nest held nothing, and would not 

 have been recognized as a nest unless- 



