THE OOLOQIST 



139 



searched the tree trunks in the vicin- 

 ity for the hidden larvae. An Orch- 

 ard Oriole was also located here and 

 its song often heard. 



In this section the country is but 

 little poijulated and t'le birds have al- 

 most a free range, and to the natur- 

 alist this is, indeed, a Mecca well 

 worth visiting, even if only for a few 

 hours. Today 48 species of birds ap- 

 peared and in addition an abundance 

 of natural life, both botanically and 

 otherwise, was apparent, sufficient to 

 satisfy the cravings of the most en- 

 thusiastic observer regardless of the 

 department of the nature study which 

 he may be seeking. 



A striking incident of the days out- 

 ing was the battle between a Black 

 Snake (Coluber constrictor) and a 

 Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) in 

 the grove near Beaufort for the pos- 

 session of a small Green F'rog (Rana 

 clamata) which the Black Snake had 

 captured and the Garter Snake was 

 trying to get away from him. The 

 battle lasted for about fifteen minutes 

 during which the Black had complete- 

 ly crushed the Garter Snake until all 

 life was apparently extinct and then 

 he swallowed the frog with a gleam 

 in his eyes of apparent satisfaction 

 as he coiled himself up to digest his 

 prey and enjoy the heat of the sun as 

 it receded over the western horizon. 

 Although the T. Sirtalis was fully six 

 inches longer and considerably stout- 

 er than the C. constrictor, he was 

 completely outclassed and fell an easy 

 victim to the squeezings of the lat- 

 ter. Louis S. Kohler. 

 Blcomfield, N. T. 



Unusual Nesting Sites of the Ameri- 

 can Merganser. 

 (Merganser americanus.) 

 By Walter Raine, Toronto. 

 In all works on North American 

 birds, nests and eggs the nesting sit- 



uation of this species is given as be- 

 ing in a hole in a tree, after the man- 

 ner of the hooded merganser, buffle- 

 head American golden-eye and wood 

 duck. I was therefore very much sur- 

 prised to find American mergansers 

 nesting in holes under boulders en an 

 island in Lake Winnipegosis, Manito- 

 ba, during June, 1903. 



My son and I found about 30 pairs 

 nesting on Gun Island on June 16th. 

 All the nests that we could reach were 

 built far back at the end of darlc pas- 

 sages under boulders on the highest 

 part of the island, some nests being 

 from four to six feet back from the en- 

 trance and were hard to get at; in 

 some cases my boy had to crawl be- 

 tween the boulders to reach the eggs 

 and I had to pull him out by the feet. 

 In one hole he caught a female on the 

 nest, and afterwards my boy tied a 

 fishing line to its leg and let it swim 

 around the boat. It was astonishing 

 with what speed it cut through the 

 water using its wings and fairly flying 

 under water, after which we gave it 

 its liberty and it flew away. The nests 

 contained from 8 to 12 eggs, one nest 

 containing as many as 13. They are 

 easily distinguishable from other duck 

 eggs by their very large size and pale 

 buff tint, averaging 2.60 x 1.80. One 

 nest contained eggs laid by two fe- 

 males as half the eggs were of a deep- 

 er tint and different size and shape 

 than the others. The down is pale 

 greyish-white after the fashion of all 

 other ducks that nest in holes in trees 

 or in the dark. The male mergansers 

 flew away as our sail boat approached 

 the island, but the females sat close 

 dashing past our feet as we scrambled 

 amongst the boulders where the.v 

 were nesting. On this same island sev- 

 eral red-breasted mergansers had nests 

 containing 8 and 9 eggs each ; their 

 nests were not at the end of burrows, 

 but in depressions un(?t * dense under- 



