128 



THE C0L0G1ST. 



warblers, whose lives seem so gay, we 

 find there are thorns on their roses 

 too. 



First of all there is the cat, who is 

 seen creeping through the bushes try- 

 ing to jump upon some unfortunate 

 bird, who is not aware of its enemy. 

 Then there is the grass snake, who 

 glides with its flexible body through 

 the grass, trying to find the nest of 

 some bird who builds within its reach, 

 to suck its eggs or kill the young or the 

 old bird. 



But worse than these or any other is 

 collector, egg-hog, nest-robber, or any 

 other name you may apply. 



Although I profess to be a collector, 

 I don't Collect in sets. Some of you 

 may say "not much of a collector,'' 

 well, think so. If I have one egg of a 

 set and my data shows how many there 

 were in the nest, what do I want of 

 them all, are they not more valuable to 

 the bird than me? 



There is a class of boys here, and 

 maybe there is where you live, who 

 don't really collect eggs, but get all they 

 can in the spring, punch a hole in each 

 end and blow the inside out, put them 

 in a cigar box and let them lay around 

 all summer and throw them away in 

 the winter, so as to begin again in the 

 spring. I heard a boy say he had 25 

 "Growney's" eggs. 



I think a nice collection of single 

 eggs, side blown, first-class, with data, 

 is a very nice thing to have and to keep 

 and to collect them is much better than 

 loafing around smoking cigarettes or 

 reading dime novels. 



I take a great interest in birds, and 

 should like to learn about them with- 

 out robbing them of all their eggs. 

 Geo. R. Cooley, 

 Minneapolis, Minn. 



Queer Neighbors. 



While out collecting last May, in 

 Northampton Co. Va. I stumbled over 



an oddity in the way of a rookery, ten- 

 anted by Purple Grakles and Green 

 Herons. The former were much the 

 more numerous, their nests numbering 

 a hundred or more while the Herons 

 could probably muster no more than 

 twenty-five pairs. 



The colony occupied a grove of small 

 second growth pines, some twenty feet 

 in heighth, the nests of the Grakles in- 

 variably being placed up in the very 

 top of the trees while their less assum- 

 ing companions were content to dwell 

 in the lower story, so to speak, their 

 "platforms" seldom being over ten feet 

 from the ground and loosely balanced 

 on the top of a horizontal branch. As 

 the breeding ground was some distance 

 from the water it was somewhat sur- 

 prising to find the Herons so numerous, 

 as in this locality they usually nest sin- 

 gly or in bunches of three or four pairs, 

 on the small islets that strew the shore. 



In spite of their dissimiliar tastes, the 

 two species seemed to get on well to- 

 gether, possibly because most of them 

 were busily employed in feeding half- 

 grown young at the time of our visit. 

 This seemed to be true with all the gra- 

 kles, but some of the Herons had nests 

 filled with fresh sets of eggs, doubtless 

 the second attempts of those birds 

 whose earliest efforts had met with dis- 

 aster. 



The difference in the behavior of the 

 young was very noticable. The young 

 Blackbirds were scattered indiscrim- 

 inately through the branches and over 

 the ground below, each one making 

 more noise than his fellow. Their lan- 

 ky neighbors on the contrary knew 

 enough to stay near home and could al- 

 ways be found, silent and perfectly 

 motionless, by the side of their miser- 

 able bed of sticks, the whole outfit form- 

 ing as comical a picture as one can find 

 in a month's collecting. 



Theodore W. Richards, 

 Washington, D. C. 



