THE OOLOGIST. 



rabbits' fur sticking to tliem. I liave 

 never found any remains of food or 

 bones in the nest. 



Upon the approach of a person the 

 bird will crouch so low in the nest that 

 it is impossible to see her from the 

 ground. There will, however, always 

 be a pair of "horns" sticking up from 

 the nest, when the bird is at home, to 

 tell the story. 



The nest of the Barred Owl I have 

 never found, but have no doubt of their 

 nesting here as specimens have been 

 shot during the nesting season. 



Ellison Orr, 

 Postville, la. 



My 1895 Outing in Assiniboia. 



May 31,'95:-I wasoutof bed this morn- 

 ing about 4 o'clock and soon had break- 

 fast ready. The weather had been windy 

 and the teut had flapped all night and 

 this, added to the noise of the numerous 

 Plovers and other game birds and the 

 excitement of taking a set of Buffle- 

 heads. had kept me awake most of the 

 night. A coyotte would occasionally 

 favor us with his musical note. In the 

 morning I went downto the edge of the 

 lake and found that several deer had 

 been drinking close to our tent. Their 

 hoof marks were plainly discernable in 

 the soft mud. 



The sensation of listening to the dif- 

 ferent game birds making their noises 

 at every hour of the night is something 

 an ardent naturalist will never forget. 

 The Killdeers, Avocets and Marbled 

 Godwifs appeared to make more noise 

 during' the night than the other kinds 

 of Plovers. Perhaps the reason for this 

 is because they were most numei'ous. 

 Moreover, as we all know, the Killdeer 

 is always a noisy bird during the breed- 

 ing season. I missed the musical notes 

 of the Western Meadowlark {Siurn- 

 ella magna heglecta). I shall never 

 forget the pleasure I derived from 

 listening to the notes of this beautiful 



bird in Manitoba during my visit there 

 the previous season. I arrived at Loog 

 Lake, Man., one evening in June, '94, 

 about 9 o'clock. The weather was line 

 and this bird was in .full song. Many 

 were singing from the tops of the tele- 

 graph wires. I had not heard the 

 notes of this bird previously and at first 

 did not know what kind of birds were 

 favoring me with such sweet music. 

 However I soon discovered I was listen- 

 ing to Sturnella and am of the opinion 

 that I have never listened to sweeter 

 bird music anywhere, although I have 

 heard all our Eastern Thrushes csing 

 and have listened to many of our South- 

 ern birds in their native haunts. 



The notes of S. neglecta are richer 

 and more plaintive than 5^. magna and 

 the eggs are smaller, at least the set I 

 collected are. 



After breakfast my brother and his 

 friend started out with me to try and 

 locate a few more nests. We saw a fe- 

 male Martin leave a hole in a tree 

 about 15 feet from the ground and I 

 was soon inspecting the cavity which 

 contained no eggs. 



Several White-bellied Swallows 

 ( Tachydneta hicolor) were flying from 

 holes in stubs but I did not molest their 

 nests as my series of their eggs was full. 

 I soon came to the tree from which I 

 had taken the 9 eggs of Charitonetta ah 

 beola the evening previous Both birds 

 male and female were in the vicinity 

 and I again climbed to the nest think- 

 ing I might get another egg. Judge of 

 my surprise on finding the cavity half 

 full of wet sea weed undoubtedlyjtaken 

 there by the birds. I have no doubt 

 the pair laid another set of eggs and 

 probably hatched their brood in peace. 

 The locality is very wild and the 

 chances are, nothing interfered with 

 their i^econd clutch. 



I next flushed a Yellow Hammer 

 {Colaptes auralus) out of a hole in a 

 hollow tree. I did not climb to the 

 hole as it was quite a way up, and the 



