THE OOLOGIST. 



151 



beautiful nest of the Caavas-back con- 

 taining foui'teen line eggs. Tlie nest 

 was built of flags and reeds, similar to 

 a Coot's, and was placed in the high 

 thick flags in about two feet of water 

 ■close to shore. Canvas-backs and Red- 

 iheads were very plentiful and flying 

 around us making a lot of noise. We 

 saw a lot of Mallards, Shovellers— in 

 pairs, Baldpate, Gadwall, Teals, Blue 

 Bills (Scaup) and numerous other 

 Ducks. I found a Coot's nest contain- 

 ing nineteen eggs and it looked very 

 lull indeed,also saw about twenty other 

 nests of the Coot containing from three 

 to twelve eggs each. The Crows were fly- 

 ing around in all directions with eggs in 

 their bills and were very tame and im- 

 prudent. I shooed several away from 

 the nests but they nearly always re- 

 turned and took away eggs close to me 

 where I could witness the whole per- 

 formance. 



My brother had a number of nests of 

 Ducks spotted for m^e, and he told me 

 the Crows robbed all but one of them 

 (the Canvas-back of fourteen eggs 

 which I safely landed.) Phalaropes in 

 flocks of from ten to a hundred were 

 swimming around in the water, males 

 and females together, and I spent a lot 

 of time watching tlieir actions. They 

 appeai'ed to be feeding on the insects in 

 the water, as a great many of them 

 were in two or three feet of water. 

 They did not appear to mind my pres- 

 ence in the least and went on feeding 

 within ten feet of me. On the shores 

 I noticed a great many very small Sand- 

 pipers, numerous Killdeers and small 

 Spotted Sandpipers. My brother then 

 took me to the foot of the hills, and at 

 the bottom of a coulee I found a nest 

 of the Long-eared Owl. It was placed 

 fifteen feet up in a maple and contained 

 five fresh eggs, a couple of coulees fur- 

 ther down I found another nest con- 

 ' taining three eggs. My brother then 

 showed me a nest and two fine eggs of 

 the Western Goshawk. The nest was 



eight feet up in a willow tree and was a 

 very large one, and had been occupied 

 for many years, probably by the same 

 pair of bii-ds. The female was very 

 noisy. My brother found this nest May 

 26th, and as it then contained two eggs, 

 and the birds laid no more, the set was 

 no doubt complete. We now retraced 

 our steps to the house and turned in 

 for the night. 



E. Arnold, 

 Battle Creek, Mich. 

 (to be continued.) 



Notes from Punkin Patch. 



Visits to the swamps or fluviatile 

 lakes of the river bottoms doubtless 

 occur so frequently in the experiences 

 of many readers of the Oologist that 

 the novelty of these visits long since 

 vanished and the birds there found 

 were long ago placed in the common 

 categoi-y. 



Living as I do, however, in the dry 

 regions of the great "Prairie States," 

 my summer outings to the swamps are 

 eagerly anticipated and long remem- 

 bered, and the denizens of these mud 

 and water districts are yet objects of 

 keen interest and study. Day after 

 day found me in the marshes, tramping 

 in the soft, sunny margins to find 

 the homes of the King Rail, wading 

 thigh-deep in water and yielding moss 

 in search of Coots and Gallinules, push- 

 ing my toilsome way among the thick 

 growth of tall flags which secrete the 

 habitations of the Marsh Wrens and 

 Yellow-headed Blackbirds, or out in 

 the deeper water, filled with a rank 

 growth of moss and covered with the 

 spreading pads and fragrant blossoms 

 of the lily, where ai^e scattered the 

 nests of the Grebe and the Black Tern, 

 all common species, but new to one 

 whose collecting is done chiefly in the 

 upland regions. What enthusiastic 

 collector, accustomed to . the birds of 

 the dry regions, would not wade the 



