18; 



THE OOLOGIST. 



for a few days she commenced to work, 

 the male taking no part in the con- 

 struction of the nest, but keeping con- 

 veniently near, and both uttering their 

 rapid chu-chu-chu incessantly. 



Her only material was the fibrous 

 strings from the leaves of the fan 

 palm growing near by. These strings 

 are as strong as common sewing cotton 

 and many of them a vard in length. 

 The nesl was placed about midway of 

 the leaf and about 10 feet from the 

 ground. 



I did not see the tirst day's work, but 

 my attention was attracted to it from 

 the balcony above, by seeing her in the 

 most intelligent and skillful manner 

 puncture a hole from the tinder side of 

 the leaf and push a" string through, 

 then come around lo the uj)per side 

 and pull it through, fastening it with a 

 loop, for a guy. She fastened several 

 other guys, and then proceeded to 

 build quite a massive affair of woven 

 and twistad palm strings, the whole 

 structure about six inches long, the 

 nest itself about three inches deep; the 

 remaining three being solidly packed 

 with the strings. 



After a week or more of work the 

 nest swung gaily out from under its 

 green canopy. Swayed by every 

 breeze, a high wind often tossing the 

 leaf perpendicularly in a way which to 

 any but an oriole would have been per- 

 ilous enough; but she trustingly depos- 

 ited four eggs in it and in due time 

 they were hatched. But as I had an- 

 ticipated the leaf became torn and 

 broken and things began to look inse- 

 cure; and one morning I found her guy 

 strings broken loose and the nest dang- 

 ling at an angle of 45 degrees, with a 

 young bird dead on the ground. With 

 step-ladder and twine I righted and 

 strengthened it, and the remaining 

 three were reared in safety. 



M. L. Dodge, 

 Chula Vista, Cal. 



Incubation. 



A year ago in marking the degrees of 

 incubation on the several eggs of several 

 good-sized setsuf water birds, and in sub- 

 sequently comparing the eggs in each 

 set with one another, I made what was, 

 for' me, a partial discovery. Namely, 

 that variations of incubation — degrees, 

 in the same set's of eggs are probably 

 much more common than we ai"e ac- 

 customed to suppose. 



This, by consequence, follows — that 

 when the data for certain sorts of eggs 

 are marked, — "Incubation advanced — " 

 the information is scientifically mis- 

 leading. Of course absolute scientific 

 accuracy is unobtainable, in a necessar- 

 \\y abbreviated data, but a reasonable 

 approximation to accuracy should al- 

 ways, without question, be sought by 

 every really scientific collector. 



Following up the practice begun up- 

 on my Heron eggs, and gradually ab- 

 breviating, to save precious time, I 

 have gradually formulated a code of 

 incubation marks, which would, I 

 strongly believe, if widely adopted, 

 carefully used and uniformly applied, 

 give added interest to many a set of 

 otherwi.se apparently uniform eggs, 

 and throw considerable light upon 

 little-known conditions, connected 

 with the incubation of eggs. My plan 

 is this: 



In blowing eggs, of all sizes, I try to 

 note, very carefully, the exact condi- 

 tion of the germ. If the egg be abso- 

 lutely fresh — which comparatively few 

 eggs are — the egg, if a good-sized one, 

 is marked with an "O" beside the 

 blow-hole, while, if the egg be small, 

 the note i-' made on the field-book. If 

 there be the faintest trace of blood the 

 mark is "b;" if this condition is well 

 pronounc d the mark is "B;" if the em- 

 bryo is visible an ''e'' is inscribed on 

 the egg; .-i fairly lai-ge, .-oft embryo is 

 marked '"li;" while a largp, tough one 

 is honered with an "a." And then, if 



