156 



THE OOLOGIST. 



rushes. This particular bird, however, 

 was very lucky, mauy of the same spec- 

 ies had shared the fate of the Coots. 

 The nest of the Am. Bittern was com- 

 pletely submerged as you may suppose, 

 the water having risen nearly two feet, 

 while the nest was built only a few in- 

 ches above water. 



It had not yet reached all the nests of 

 the Blackbirds, though many of them 

 were under water, but the wind and 

 waves had robbed all of their contents. 



The nest of Wilson's Phalarope was 

 covered with water, and it would have 

 been so with a much lighter rain than 

 the one we had. 



Every bird was' sorrowing and dis- 

 consolate, mourning for their lost nests 

 and young. There were many sufferers 

 besides those I have named, but I was 

 unable to learn the extent of the dam- 

 age, though I think from the sad voices 

 of the Kildeers and other birds who had 

 their homes in the plowed fields; that 

 their nests were washed under or eggs 

 carried away by the current. The Rud- 

 dy Ducks also must have been suffer- 

 ers. They were just laying, and one of 

 their eggs lay on the shoi'e of a slough 

 where the bird had deposited it after 

 the flood. 



The Black Terns were all heavy los- 

 ers, scarcely a nest remaining, though I 

 did see one with its eggs among a thick 

 cluster of rushes where the wind could 

 not well reach it. 



But we could not lose much time for 

 we all wanted to raise a brood of little 

 ones, so we set to work to construct 

 other nests and lay another complement 

 of eggs. The Grebes and Terns got in 

 their work first, as many of the former 

 found their nests still floating flush 

 with the surface, and the latter could 

 utilize some bog. 



At present writing, just one month 

 from date of the great freshet, many 

 birds are rejoicing over pretty little 

 nestlings, myself among the number. 



Others are nearly ready to hatch, and 



some of the more backward ones will 

 have to wait several weeks yet. 



We learned something by the flood 

 and built our nests very much higher 

 than usual. 



One King Rail's nest was nearly a 

 foot high, and just as she finished lay- 

 ing an oologist who lives here — J. V. 

 Crone by name — came along and took 

 the eggs. Dirty trick wasn't it? and 

 the only excuse he had to offer was that 

 he had not taken any earlier, and that 

 he had none in his collection. The Am. 

 Bitterns wisely (or unwisely) resorted 

 to dry land of meadows, for their see* 

 on d nest, I say unwisely for when the 

 above oologist is mowing hay he finds 

 their nest, and they lay a $1.25 egg* 

 you know. 



The Phalaropes left. I guess they 

 could not bear the thought of trying to 

 nest again, for I have not seen any 

 since the flood. 



The Yellow-legs are back from the 

 north already. I wonder if they had a 

 flood up there too. May be they had a 

 snowstorm. 



Well clear readers in spite of the 

 heavy rain and large amount of dam- 

 age, the above is written by a very hap- 



py 



MUDHEN. 



Feeding the Birds in Winter. 



How many of the readers of the Oo- 

 logist have ever tried this plan as a 

 means of enabling them to study more 

 closely the habits of our winter visitors? 

 I will tell you of my experience in this, 

 at my happy child-hood home in East- 

 ern Indiana. 



During a long cold winter a few years 

 ago, I found many small birds that had 

 evidently died from a lack of food, as a 

 deep snow had covered everything for 

 several weeks. The thought occured to 

 me that it would be indeed a labor of 

 love, as well 'as an act of charity, to in- 

 duce the little feathered songsters to 

 come to a certain place io be fed. I 



