170 



THE OOLOGIST. 



and, cinnamon spots on sides, size 1.76x 

 1.43. Egg 3, ovate, scattered lilac 

 blotches, a few specks of cinnamon, 

 size 1.76x1.43. 



Set. III. In March of '93 I saw a 

 Broad-wing watching me, sitting 

 tamely and silently in a black oak 

 thicket, north of town, while I wallowed 

 through snow drift and grass tangle 

 after a pair of Mallards that were fish- 

 ing in a woodland marsh. On May 

 16th while scouring this spot for Bit- 

 tern eggs, I saw the Broad-wing stand- 

 ing in the stout, three limbed body 

 crotch of a black oak only ten feet up. 

 A most rudimentary nest supported a 

 single dark egg, which, with its later 

 laid lighter colored mate, was taken, 

 May 31, from the then completed nest 

 of sticks, bark and leafy twigs. 



Incubation begun. Egg 1, rounded 

 oval, scattered cinnamon spots, a solid 

 striation of same at small end, a few 

 spots of darker, size 1.8x1.5. Egg 3, 

 rounded oval, uniformerly spotty 

 blotched with lilac, small cinnamon 

 spots well scattered, size 1.83x1.5. The 

 '93 nest was in the densest part of the 

 wood, twenty rods away, twelve feet 

 up in swamp oak. 



Set IV. Was taken in Atkin county, 

 close to a wood read, forty rods from 

 the shore of a beautiful wooded lake, 

 in a rock maple, twenty feet up and 

 within call of a farm house, was the 

 nest. Reported to me by a small boy. 

 The nest was large, of twigs, lined with 

 bark and pine needles. Two eggs. 

 Incubation advanced, May 31, '93. Egg 

 1, slightly rounded ovate, small scat- 

 tered sub-lilac spots, small blotches of 

 dull cinnamon massed at small end, as 

 if laid on with dried brush, size 1.9x 

 1.65. Egg 3, oval, uniformly clouded 

 with vinaceous cinnamon, rather heav- 

 ier at small end, size 1.8x1.5. The fe- 

 male was seen on the empty nest 24 

 hours after. 



Set V. At sunset of the same day, 

 May 31st amid the heavy rock maple 



timber on the east side of the same 

 Earm Island Lake, I was watching with 

 every sense intent for nest-going Wood 

 Ducks. Hollow after hollow was vain- 

 ly sounded. As darkness began to fall, 

 I saw a tell-tale tail projecting from a 

 slight stick nest, well set against the 

 two foot trunk of a leaning bass w^ood, 

 forty feet up, where the first two slight 

 limbs cropped out. Madam left the 

 nest quickly, silently. "A Oooperi" 

 said I. To save me. I could not safely 

 raise my head high enough to look into 

 the nest there was spur hold and branch- 

 let hold, only. A flatness, however, of 

 small sticks. Eggs appeared uncolored 

 in the twilight. But lamp light told a. 

 different story. Of the three eggs, 

 number 1, oval and sharply pointed, 

 was covered with very faint, cloudy 

 specks of viaceous cinnamon, the large 

 end being capped with a circlet of the 

 same, and a few darker specks, size 

 2.15x1.5. Number 2, pointed oval, was 

 marked with a very few vague, livid 

 spots, and three or four blotchy spots of 

 half obliterated bright cinnamon, size 

 2x1.53. Egg 3, pointed oval was spot- 

 ted with livid, like No. 2, but with a 

 few scattered "fly specks" of light 

 brown. The large end of the egg Avas 

 capped with a circle of these same "fly 

 specks." very numerous and well de- 

 fined, size of egg 2.15xt.51. Incubation 

 beguu. These eggs w^ere larger than 

 the largest Broad-wing eggs noted in 

 Davie: yet Broad-wings they certainly 

 were. And I went at dawn next day to 

 prove it. Rowing rapidly over the 

 clear still water my boat speedily 

 ground the sand just at day break, 

 under shadow of the pines and birches. 

 Within three minutes I was standing 

 beneath my leaning tree, eying, with 

 bated breath, the expressive tail of the 

 Hawk that sat motionless upon her 

 empty nest. But, in a moment Tig-qe- 

 e-e and away she darted. Instantly the- 

 shout of a delighted naturalist echoed 

 out and far across the lake. And a 



