44 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Snipe on the 20th of March the past sea- 

 son, pei"haps as early as we have a re- 

 cord here of them. On the same day I 

 found a Prairie Horned Lark's nest 

 with four eggs. 



-A day or two later a heavy snow 

 storm set in covering the fields with 

 from one to two inches and in some ex- 

 posed places with 3 inches of snow. 

 This may have destroyed a great many 

 clutches of their eggs, for I found nests 

 on April 29th and 30th, May 13th, June 

 24th and 30th. 



Next in order is the Red-tailed 

 -Hawk. I have taken fresh clutches 

 from April 1st to May 3rd, and highly 

 incubated eggs and young much later. 

 They build mostly very high; sometimes 

 impossible to get, as in one instance 

 where the nest was placed in the top of 

 a shellbark hickory where the bark for 

 \ipwards of eighty feet had to be peeled 

 ■off. I tried it for thirty feet and then 

 gave up. I find in my memorandum 

 book under April 25, 1892; Red-tailed 

 Hawk's nest in Kenmore wood, in elm 

 tree, seventy-one feet high, slightly incu- 

 bated set of two eggs. Go there the 

 next year, one week sooner. April 9, 

 1893, same locality, but in different tree, 

 several hundred feet away, seventy feet 

 irom the ground, a nest of Red-tailed 

 Hawk with three eggs, perfectly fresh; 

 April 28th, from same pair of birds, 

 nest in a different tree, sixty-four feet 

 from the ground, one egg. You can 

 see that these three clutches have been 

 laid by the same bird, they are very 

 large and finely marked. Since then 

 the Electric Street Railway Co. has ex- 

 tended its line .past this wood, which 

 is almost entirely cut down and the 

 Hawks have disappeiired. Really too 

 bad! I have also taken, April 1, '94, a 

 set of three Screech Owl's eggs. The 

 Owl occupied a deserted Nuthatch 

 nest. 



The eggs of the American Woodcock 

 was taken here, April 7, 1894; April 

 11, 1892 and April 17, 1864. All three 

 .sets were perfectly fresh. 



The eggs of our Common Crow have 

 been taken by me from April 13th to 

 the middle of May. 



A fine set of two eggs of the Barred 

 Owl was taken by me April 15th. Had 

 no time to leave the nest undisturbed 

 for a few days or I might have had a full 

 set. 



The Bronzed Grakle is quite common 

 from April 25th to May 1st. 



Fine sets of from to two five eggs of 

 Red-shouldered Hawk w^re taken by 

 me from April 24th to June 24th. sSome 

 are handsomely marked. 



April 29th, May 13th, June 18th, 24th, 

 and July 10th, are the dates that I have 

 taken Killdeer eggs in sets of two to 

 five. 



Perfectly fresh sets of the White- 

 rumped Shrike eggs were taken by me 

 April 29th, May 16th, and June 7th. 



May 1st is the time for the Hairy and 

 Red-bellied Woodpecker. 



The Sparrow Hawk has quite a wide 

 range. Finely marked sets were taken 

 May 6th, 18th, 24th, 27th, and 30th. 

 Very likely they breed twice if their 

 eggs are taken in the early dates. Also 

 a fine set of five Great Crested Fly- 

 catcher awarded my search on the 6th of 

 May. 



May 7th was the day I found a Blue 

 Jay's nest with four eggs. 



On the 8th, 17th, and 29th of May I 

 took handsome sets of from seven to 

 nine Nuthatch's eggs. 



Beautiful sets of Ruffed Grouse's eggs- 

 awarded my searches on May 11th and 

 21st. 



The Mourning Dove breeds here from 

 May 12th. 



Several fine sets of Cooper's Hawk 

 were taken May 14th, and 16th. 



A most welcome set of five American 

 Bittern's eggs greeted me on the bright 

 morning of May 19th. 



The quite abundant Brown Thrasher 

 commences incubation May 21st. 



Our swampy places have been explor- 

 ed by me for the fine clutches of the 



