314 



THE OOLOGIST 



time and the gun and ax have changed 

 things considerably, and now but few 

 scattering pairs are found nesting. 

 They do not as a rule place their nest 

 as high, or in as large trees as the 

 Black-crowned. They feed on crayfish, 

 frogs, small fish and insects. Nests 

 usually in May and June. I have col- 

 lected fine sets in May. 



Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycti- 

 corax nycticorax naevius). Formerly 

 quite abundant, but now scarce on ac- 

 count of the wanton destruction by 

 the idiot with a gun; also sportsmen, 

 and the cutting away of timber. 

 Nests usually in colonies, in the smal- 

 ler timber along streams in May and 

 June. Food consists of fish, crabs, 

 lizards, mice, and insects. I usually 

 collected sets in May. 



Geo. W. H. vos Burgh. 

 Zion City, 111. 



Field Notes. 



June 22, 1912, having an afternoon 

 off I decided to take a run up to my 

 favorite hunting grounds, the Quinni- 

 piac Marshes. So getting out my kit, 

 I boarded a Montowese car and rode 

 as far as Muddy River. After getting 

 off the car I walked along the bank of 

 the river down towards the marsbes. 

 After walking about a quarter of a 

 mile and while passing through a lit- 

 tle clump of water oak bushes, I sud- 

 denly came up on a Cuckoo's nest with 

 a female Black-billed Cuckoo sitting 

 on it. When I advanced a step she 

 flew off the nest and disappeared 

 among the bushes. 



Looking into the nest, I could hard- 

 ly believe my eyes, for besides one 

 young, it contained two Yellow-billed 

 and two Black-billed Cuckoo's eggs. 

 The young was covered with bluish 

 pin feathers and quite lively; there- 

 fore at least two days old; both eggs 

 of the Black-billed Cuckoo must have 



been nearly hatched, because I could 

 see no light when I held them up to 

 the sun. One measured 1.09 x .79, the 

 other 1.12 x .80. One of the Yellow- 

 billed Cuckoo's eggs showed dark, red- 

 dish blotches on holding it to the 

 light; therefore incubation had com- 

 menced, and the other was perfectly 

 clear, showing only the yoke, and in 

 fresh condition. Measurements, 1.17 

 x.85 and 1.15 x .84. 



The nest, of dry sticks and a few 

 skeleton leaves around the top, lined 

 with mud colored leaves and skeleton 

 leaves and one large feather (looked 

 to be a Crow's feather) was a little 

 larger and more compactly made than 

 the usual run of Cuckoo's nests. It 

 was two feet and nine inches from the 

 ground and placed on a tangle of 

 briars and ferns, tops of ferns project- 

 ing about three to six inches above 

 nest. A very unusual nesting site for 

 a Black-billed Cuckoo, at least in this 

 section of New England. 



I will devote my spare time to this 

 nest for the next two weeks and am 

 quite sure it will be time well spent. 



E. Ulbert. 

 New Haven, Ct. 



It is not unusual to find Cuckoo's 

 nests containing the eggs of both spe- 

 cies, nor to find nests containing eggs 

 at various stages of incubation. At 

 one time we found a nest containing 

 seven Cuckoo's eggs, three of which 

 were Black-billed and four Yellow- 

 billed. And another time, a Yellow- 

 bill's nest containing two young birds, 

 one of which was in the neighborhood 

 of a week old, the other just hatched, 

 one normal perfectly fresh egg and 

 one runt egg of not more than one- 

 third the size of an ordinary egg of 

 this species. These two eggs are now 

 in our collection. — Editor. 



