181 



THE OOLOGIST. 



went on. Reaching the main point 

 where the branches divided he tied his 

 strap to a big limb and set out to gather 

 eggs. 



This part is the most dangerous of 

 the undertaking. The branches are 

 from six inches to a foot in diameter 

 and angle off from a common center for 

 from ten to twenty feet and are very 

 smooth, and besides there is more or 

 less deposit of lime on all the branches. 

 One false step upon these limbs would 

 mean almost sure death. Yet this in- 

 trepid dare devil would walk up the 

 limbs not over three inches through, 

 and at nearly a hundred feet from the 

 ground would lower the line and pull 

 up the basket and fill it with eggs. Not 

 only this, but to scare me he would roll 

 a cigarette and smoke it standing in the 

 bulky nest. 



In one tree he found a Red-tailed 

 Hawk's nest or rather young, for the 

 buzzard had taken a Heron's nest, ready 

 made, for its purpose. Some trees had 

 nests mostly tilled with young and my 

 companion did not ascend these trees. 

 We could tell generally by watching the 

 birds. In this way he made no mis- 

 takes and did not climb an unproduct- 

 ive tree. There must have been at 

 least thirty trees which held nests. 

 There were perhaps a dozen which held 

 ten or more each, while several con- 

 tained but one to four. 



Our needs were satisfied by the pro- 

 duct of six trees which brought the 

 number up to near 200, which gave us 

 about 170 well-blown eggs. Many were 

 so badly incubated as to give great 

 trouble in preparation. 



I have found this species very com- 

 mon in the South where it breeds in 

 abundance. In FJorida the eggs of the 

 Blue Heron are generally considerably 

 larger than those taken at the North, 

 while as if to make amends for the dis- 

 parity in size the Northern birds lay 

 more eggs in a clutch. The average 

 number of eggs at the North is between 



four and five, probabfy nearer &ve, 

 while at the South it is below four. I 

 have heard of sets of seven eggs in Mich- 

 igan, while I have seen two sets of six 

 and any number of sets of five. In 

 Florida the Great Blue never lays over 

 four that I can learn of on the St. John's 

 River and often only three, but as I 

 have proved they average larger. 



In Florida the Herons of all species, 

 so far as I am able to judge, are given 

 to nesting in comparitively low trees, 

 and often in nothing more than bushes, 

 and it requires no effort to get them af- 

 ter once locating a rookery. However, 

 it requires much caution in order to 

 identify the species, aud especially is 

 this the case where the Louisiana,Little 

 Blue and Snowy Herons nest together, 

 as they are often found doing. 



Eugene Pericles. 



Tennessee and Connecticut Watblers in 

 Massachusetts. 



While gunning in the outskirts of 

 Millbury on Sept. 27, 1895, I was for- 

 tunate enough to secure a Tennessee 

 Warbler, a bird which very rarely 

 comes so far east. It was feeding 

 among the white bitches and maples at 

 the edge of a swamp in company with 

 a small fiock of Black-poll Warblers. 

 On dissecting I found it to be a 

 young female. 



Not contented with securing one 

 prize, I made another trial on Oct. 5th 

 and took two Connecticut Warblers; 

 both I think are males, although at this 

 season of the year it is very hard to tell 

 the sex of small birds. I found them 

 in a white birch thicket together with 

 the Myrtle and Yellow-palm Warblers. 

 Their only note was a low chirp, quite 

 different from that of any of the com- 

 mon Warblers. Besides the above, I 

 shot a freak on Sept. 30th in the shape 

 of a Field Sparrow with a pure white 

 tail. H. T. Van Ostrand. 



Millbury, Mass. 



