50 



THE OOLOGIST 



in this one as the bird had just left it, 

 but to say I was surprised when I saw 

 one white egg is putting it mild. 



There was a Catbird's nest, the 

 same as I had seen dozens before, 

 and a Catbird only a few feet away, — 

 but a white egg. I took up the egg 

 and saw that it was fresh, but what 

 to do I didn't know; leave it and have 

 something destroy it, or wait and see 

 if the bird would lay any more. I 

 finally decided to leave it and four 

 days later went to the nest and hard- 

 ly dared to look at it, but off came 

 Mrs. Catbird, and four pure white 

 eggs in the nest. Happy, — well I 

 guess. 



It's some years since I found it, but 

 somehow I've got to look that spot 

 over everytime I go that way. Most 

 always a Catbird's nest is there, but 

 with those terrible blue eggs. 



Don't know if it's my bird of course, 

 but if she has gone back to laying blue 

 eggs I'm through with her. 



Did find a set of Wilson Thrush with 

 two eggs, one-half size in there, but 

 nothing else of value." 



Along The High Water. 



All through this past month (Jan- 

 uary 1913), we have had much rain 

 and high water. So open has it been 

 that it has brought no northern visit- 

 ors and things have been very dead in 

 the bird line. The high water brings 

 to mind other floods that occurred in 

 late March and April at which times 

 a hunt along the overflows is very apt 

 to result in finding more or less of in- 

 terest. 



One of these days was March 28, 

 1904. For a week it had been thawing 

 and raining, taking off the snow and 

 the result was very high water. The 

 weather had turned colder the day be- 

 fore and on this day it was snowing 

 and the wind was strong in the North- 

 west. The water had also receded a 



little. I was on my way before day- 

 light and was several miles below 

 town when it was light enough to see. 



At the mouth of a stream a good 

 piece of meadow was overflowed and 

 feeding along the edge was a duck I 

 couldn't just place. Circling around I 

 crawled up to a bunch of weeds and 

 when it fed along in range I gathered 

 it in and found I had a fine male Ring- 

 neck. They are very scarce in this 

 vicinity and even at Erie seem to be 

 rare. As the water was falling there 

 was quite a wide strip all along the 

 edge that was free of snow and here 

 a number of Robins and Red-winged 

 Blackbirds were feeding. I had about 

 a mile of steep mountain to cross to 

 get to the flats and wild land below 

 and on the way over I saw in the snow 

 trails of grouse, rabbits and squirrels 

 and several fox tracks. At one place 

 where the road led through plenty of 

 brush and grape vines I found a very 

 large flock of Juncos. They were 

 everywhere, and with them were a 

 few Song and Tree Sparrows and a 

 few Fox Sparrows. 



At the lower side of the mountain I 

 found a very large flock of Juncos. 



At the flats I found the river had 

 completely subinerged the first or low- 

 er flat and the overflow extended back 

 through the woods to the second flat. 

 I went down through the woods care- 

 fully along the overflow and soon 

 flushed a Black Duck but out of range. 

 Then I came upon three Red-breasted 

 Mergansers. There was plenty of 

 brush and they were well hidden and 

 saw me as soon as I saw them. But 

 I dropped a nice drake with each bar- 

 rel. 



I next noticed a pair of Black Ducks 

 feeding well out amongst the trees, 

 but no way to get out there. A Great 

 Blue Heron had been walking about in 

 the snow but I didn't see him. A pair 

 of Hooded Mergansers were along 



