106 



THE OOLOGIST. 



to be eaten by people. I had heard of 

 boat loads and wagon loads of eggs 

 gathered at a time. Recently, on the 

 14th and 15th of last month, (June, 

 1909) it was my privilege to visit for 

 the first time that "island. Four others 

 were with me. 



If I were to live a thousand years, 

 I would never forget my visit. The is- 

 land is much pmailer than I expected 

 to find it, being only about 350 by 150 

 yards at the longest and widest points. 

 As we approached the island in our 

 little gasoline boat we were met some 

 hundred yards away by thousands and 

 thousands of birds seriously protest- 

 ing against our landing. It would, of 

 course, be pure guess work to attempt 

 to estimate the number of young 

 birds we saw. I counted and thor- 

 oughly identified the following varie- 

 ties nesting on the island: Brown 

 Pelican, Great Blue Heron, Louisiana 

 Heron, Blackcrowned Night Heron, 

 Reddish Egret, Caspian, Royal, Gull- 

 billed and Sooty Terns, Black Skin- 

 ner, Laughing Gull, Doves and Great- 

 tailed Grackle. I may possibly have 

 omitted a few, as I am naming them 

 from memory. The Laughing Gulls 

 outnumber all the others. Many 

 thousands of these had already hatch- 

 ed and there were many thousands 

 of nests with two and three eggs, 

 never over three, all of them advanced 

 in incubation. The Terns seemed to 

 be nesting a second time, as there 

 were many young on the island. Many 

 of the Pelicans were just hatching, 

 and many were about grown or nearly 

 so. I could secure but very few fresh 

 eggs, or even fresh enough to be 

 blown. I am sure that I could have 

 easily gathered a wagon load of 

 Laughing Gull eggs. I am sure, fur- 

 thermore, that it requires now from 

 one thousand to five thousand pounds 

 of fish a day to feed the birds that are 

 already hatched and on the island. 

 How deeply I regretted not having a 

 kodak. It was the finest opportunity 

 for taking bird pictures I have ever 

 seen. 



I secured eggs of all the varieties 

 mentioned above except one, and on 

 this trip but not on this island, 1 se- 

 cured some beautiful sets of Carri- 

 bean Clapper Rail and Texas Seaside 

 Sparrow and a number of Wilson's 

 Plover. I found the old nests of West- 

 ern Willett and other varieties. I was 



not out on a collecting expedition, but 

 a resting expedition; did not expect 

 to get any eggs on the trip. The Terns 

 and Laughing Gulls have their nests, 

 though in separate colonies, within 

 six or eight inches of one another. I 

 found it impossible to walk on the is- 

 land without stepping in nests. Only 

 8 few Sooty Terns were there. The 

 Sooty Terns are remarkably gentle. 

 I picked one of them up from the nast, 

 had the bird mounted and saved the 

 set of only one egg. 



Eggs in nests as follows: Pelicans, 

 3, occasionally 4; Great Blue Herons, 

 Black Crowned and Louisianas, 3 

 each; Egrets 3; Laughing Gull, near- 

 ly always 3, never over; Caspian 

 Terns, 2 always; Royal only 1, except 

 in two cases, then 2; Sooty Tern, 

 never but 1. 



There are many more things which 

 I could say about this trip, but the 

 article is probably already too long. 

 J. M. CARROLL, 



San Marcos, Texas. 



Ed. — The "Bird Island," above re- 

 ferred to, lies off the Texas Gulf coast 

 somewhere — but where? 



What Number of Eggs Constitute a Set 

 of Melospiza Georgiana? 



In the December number of THE 

 OOLOGIST, Mr.Semmes in his excel- 

 lent paper on the Swamp Sparrow, 

 comments upon the number of eggs 

 constituting a set of this little bird. 

 He gives five as the usiial number of 

 eggs in a set in Virginia, which is at 

 variance with the observations of 

 many ornithologists and oologists. 



In this connection it is interesting 

 to learn that the Swamp Sparrow 

 lays larger sized sets in Virginia than 

 it does here in Southeastern Pennsyl- 

 vania, though the Old Dominion State 

 is not far South of us. This is con- 

 trarj'' to the generally a.ccepted theory 

 that Northern birds lay larger sets 

 than their Southern cogeners. 



In an oological experience of more 

 than eleven years of consecutive field 

 observations, I have found and ex- 

 amined a great many nests of the 

 Swamp Sparrow in the vicinity of 

 Philadelphia, where it is an exceeding- 

 ly common summer resident in re- 

 stricted localities. A consultation of 

 my field notes reveals that I have col- 



