THE OOLOGIST. 



87 



•down, and two others served as foot- 

 rests;and the hole cauie at just the right 

 place to get at it easily. I then took 

 •out my "egg scoop" (consisting of a 

 little bag sewn in a loop of a wire eigh- 

 teen inches long) and proceeded to bus- 

 i'less. 



I reached carefully down with the 

 1 scoop" until I could feel it touch the 

 round surface of the eggs. One at a 

 time they were brought up to light 

 through the ten-inch cavity, four in all 

 — four beauties with a yellowish pink- 

 ish color. How carefully I packed 

 them in my box aud then slid carefully 

 to the ground! But I had to take ihixn 

 from the box and look at them again, 

 before I was ready to pack them for 

 carrying home. That evening however 

 they were finally laid away safely in 

 rav cabinet. For a week, though, I had 

 to look at them two or three times a 

 day to see if they were all right. 



About two weeks aft rward, on the 

 2LstofMay. I happened in the same 

 locality again and went to the Hairy's 

 hole and tapped on the tree. What 

 was ray surprise to see the female leave 

 the hole. I did not loose much time in 

 reaching the hole and was soon reward- 

 ed with a set of four, which were as 

 beautiful as the first set. 



Meanwhile the female was flying 

 around and crying "quit! quit! quit!" 

 But I did not "quit" and soon this set 

 was lying with the first in my cabinet. 



On the second of June, I again visit- 

 ed the piece of woods to look after some 

 warblers' nests I had found on a pre- 

 vious visit. Passing the "woodpecker 

 tree," I threw a stick at it for luck. It 

 struck, and immediately the male Hairy 

 left the nest. And as he flew to an oak 

 tree near by, the notes he uttered 

 seemed to be "quit, quit, quit, get-out- 

 of-this, you've- 'ad-enough!" But an 

 "egg-crank" is hard to satisfy, and 

 soon there was another set of four 

 Hairy Woodpecker's eggs in my collec- 

 tion. I did not get a chance to visit the 



Woodpecker again that year, and so do 

 not know whether another set was laid 

 or not. But I think that three sets 

 from the same bird in one year is 

 enough for most anyone. 



The following year on May 3. 1892, 1 

 was hunting for my Hairy again. The 

 wind had blown over the nesting site of 

 the previous year. However, in half 

 an hour, the new site was found; it was 

 in a five inch poplar, 15 feet from the 

 ground, not a limb to stand on and no 

 convenient sapling. A couple of feet 

 above the hole, and on theopposite side 

 of the tree, was the remains of a limb. 

 I climbed no, hung my climbiug strap 

 over the limb, buckled it up and, 

 sat in the loop thus formed while I ex- 

 amined the hole. It contained only 

 one egg which I left. I did not see ei- 

 ther of the birds this lime. 



On May 14th, I was on the spot again. 

 In response to my rap the female left 

 the hole, and it seemed to me she rec- 

 ognized me and as she flew to a neigh- 

 boring tree she seemed to say "you, 

 you, you, here again?" I obtained a 

 set of four, incuoation about one-third. 



On May 28, I obtained a fresh set of 

 four and did not go near her again that 

 year. 



The following year I did not go out 

 until the leaves were rather thick on 

 the trees. My bird was not to be found 

 in her old haunts. But as I was going 

 home she came to meet me from anoth- 

 er strip of woods and it seemed to me 

 she said "you, you, you, got-left" and I 

 had, for the leaves were so thick I 

 could not find the nest. 



H. T Van Ostrand. 



A Few Thoughts. 



I have noticed with increasing dis- 

 approval the tendency of a large num- 

 ber of collectors to pay more attention 

 to the simple gathering together of a 

 large number of shells of different col- 

 or, shape and markings, for the purpose 



