THE OOLOGtS'l'. 



rain ceased and we fell asleep through 

 mere exhaustion. 



At four o'clock day broke and I was 

 awakened by the great noise made by 

 the birds and muskrats, the latter have 

 a peculiar scream, while several Bit- 

 terns were pumping close to us in the 

 marsh and all the Yellow-headed Black- 

 birds in the neighborhood seemed to 

 <;ome and perch on the rushes around 

 us and begin to whistle. I crawled 

 from under the boat, leaving my young 

 companion fast asleep, for the poor fel- 

 low was tired, having done all the row- 

 ing, and I spent three hours blowing 

 the Pelican and other eggs. 



At 7 o'clock I aroused my man and 

 he mounted the buckboard and saw the 

 horse a mile away, and while he went 

 after him 1 proceeded to pack my spec- 

 imens, and after refreshing ourselves 

 with Ducks' eggs beaten up in sugar, 

 we drove away from this spot to the 

 farm house three miles away, where our 

 wants were attended to by the kind 

 farmer and his wife. 



They enquired if we had seen any 

 Moose at the Lake, for on the day pre- 

 vious the farmer's wife with one of her 

 daughters was driving along the trail 

 east of the lake when a bull Moose and 

 female with its young one, got up out 

 of the marsh, splashed through the wa- 

 ter and ran off into the woods. I told 

 her I would have paid five dollars to 

 see such a sight. Moose are quite plen- 

 tiful between Lakes Winnipeg and Man- 

 itoba. 



We did not stay long at the farm but 

 drove twenty-eight miles southwai'd to 

 Long Lake, talking most of the time 

 over our disagreeable experience of the 

 day previous, and now although I am 

 a thousand miles away from Shoal Lake 

 when I open my cabinet and gaze on my 

 series of eggs of White Pelican, Cormo- 

 rants, G,ulls and Ducks, my memory 

 takes me back to one of the roughest 

 times I ever experienced in North West 

 Canada. Walter Raine, 



Toronto. 



P. M. SILLOWAY, Virden, Ills. 



Experience With the Young of Ruffed Grouse 

 and Bob-whito. 



PART II. 



It is a lameutable fact that while the 

 clearing of laad and the tilling of the 

 soil, foi- agricuUnnil purposes, does not 

 in itself ilirectly iuterfere with the wel- 

 fare of the universally l)eloved Bob- 

 white, which courts the neighborhood 

 of farm yards iu wintei* where food is 

 abundant and may readily be obtained, 

 even when the fields are banked with 

 snow; and live-! iu confidence and hap- 

 piness among the cleared fields in sum- 

 mer, yet the very means of agricultural 

 success, namely the mowing machine 

 and self-binder, prevent its increase on 

 every hand while the hunter — not the 

 sportsmen — and the fox vie with one 

 another in seeking to destroy each and 

 every individual with which they come 

 in contact. 



