142 



THE OOLOGIST 



Two September Days. 



In September, 1900, I was fortunate 

 enough to spend two weeks in a 

 house-boat along the shore of the 

 "Peninsula" in Lake Brie at Erie, Pa 



W. E. C. Todd of the Carnegie 

 Museum, Pittsburg, and W. W. Worth 

 ington, were there collecting for th^- 

 Museum and I stopped with them 

 They were located in a house-boal 

 in a sheltered spot along the shore o 

 Misery Bay, a small arm of Erie Bay 



Many migrants were about ever;, 

 day, but of course some days were 

 more productive of desirable things 

 than others. Two days in particular 

 were very interesting. These two 

 days were very different in character. 



The first day was September 10th 

 and was a fine, warm and perfectly 

 quiet day, with hardly a breath of air 

 stirring. This fine weather was the 

 forerunner of a blow and quite a wave 

 of birds arrived. I went over on the 

 outside beach, as the beach of the 

 "Peninsula" along the open lake is 

 called, and came out at a place we 

 called the "Point." At this place sev- 

 eral ponds are on the beach close to 

 the open lake and it is a favorite 

 hangout from shore-birds. Here I 

 found a large bunch of Killdeer, prob- 

 ably fifty in number. Also a bunch of 

 five or six Black-bellied Plover. Crawl- 

 ing up over the sand, to a pile of 

 wreckage that had been thrown high 

 on the beach during some storm. I 

 sized things up. 



Amongst the Killdeer I saw a good- 

 sized grayish wader, and waiting until 

 it got in range, I shot and secured a 

 Knot, a bird rarely taken here. I fol- 

 lowed up the beach to the light house. 

 Killdeer were abundant in flocks and 

 all day there was quite a large move- 

 ment of them. A bunch of Black-bel- 

 lied Plover passed at long range, and 

 I took one in. A Killdeer and a Black- 

 bellied passed and I tried the Black- 



ly ellied, but got the Killdeer instead. 



Seeing a large bird along the wa- 

 ter's edge, I made a detour and crept 

 out and secured another Black-bellied. 

 Shortly after I walked up in range of 

 a peculiar looking wader, and gather- 

 ed in the first Baird's Sandpiper I 

 ever saw. Saw also a few Sanderling 

 and Semipalmated Sandpipers. 



On my way back to the Life Sav- 

 ing Station I saw nothing of especial 

 interest until I got to the pond just 

 back of the station. Here on a sandy 

 beach I sneaked up and bagged two 

 more Black-bellied Plover. At the 

 boat landing, I found a lot of small 

 land migrants and took in a Wilson's 

 Warbler. 



After dinner I went back to the 

 "Point" where I found quite a bunch 

 of Killdeer and Semipalmated Plov- 

 er. I sat down in ambush in some 

 drift and waited. Several Black-bel- 

 lies passed and a few Sanderling; 

 then a lone piper alighted on the high 

 beach within range and I took in a 

 Pectoral, a bird more at home about 

 the ponds than on the outside. A 

 lazv Herring Gull came along close in. 

 I slammed it to him and he dropped 

 in the lake. Taking off my duds, I 

 swam out and retrieved by game. A 

 few Semip. and lots of Killdeer Plov- 

 er came along; also a few Common 

 Tern and Sanderling, but nothing I 

 wanted, so I went in. 



The other interesting day was the 

 17th. It had been blowing hard for 

 several days, and the night of the 

 16th blew a gale. On the morning of 

 the 17th, we found a good hard North- 

 west blow on. Hundreds of Black 

 Tern were flying about everywhere, 

 utterly fearless, coming up to within 

 a few feet of us. 



Numbers of Common Tern and Her- 

 ring Gull were about. All having come 

 into the bay for shelter from the 

 storm. 



