40 



THE OOLOGIST 



ing when I felt something tugging at 

 my trouser leg. Looking down I saw 

 a huge moccasin with his fangs hung 

 in my pant leg trying to get loose. 

 Quickly dropping the rifle I reached 

 down and grabbed him by the neck 

 just as he got his fangs untangled and 

 we had it back and forth, I and the 

 snake, I happened to have one foot on 

 his tail and that gave me an advan- 

 tage. I reached in my pocket with my 

 right hand and getting my knife out 

 opened it with my teeth and began to 

 saw his head off, evidently a painful 

 operation for him as he ejected venom 

 all over my shirt and when I finally 

 severed his head I picked up the rifle 

 and staggered out of the pond to dry 

 land where I lay down and put in an 

 hour of as violent vomiting as I ever 

 experienced and I was three days in 

 recovering from the nausea caused by 

 the peculiar odor of the snake. 



While this trip was not as much of 

 a success from a collecting standpoint 

 as I had wished nevertheless it was a 

 delightful experience and I shall al- 

 ways remember it as one of "the 

 times" of my life. Now that I know 

 the "ropes" I trust to have better luck 

 with photographs, etc., in 1912. As I 

 shall start early in January and spend 

 about four months in this interesting 

 and wild region. Oscar E. Baynard. 



Cliff Swallow and Sparrow. 



This summer late in June I visited 

 a farmer friend of mine on a Saturday. 



He has two large barns on his 

 place and under the eaves of one of 

 these was quite a colony of Eave 

 Swallows. I counted forty nests under 

 the eaves and on the side opposite 

 the house I noticed that a consider- 

 able amount of straw and hay pro- 

 truded from some of the Swallow's 

 nests. By lengthing out a ladder T 

 was able to get up to the nests and ex- 

 amine them. I found that ten of the 



Swallow's nests had been appropria- 

 ted by English Sparrows. The nests 

 as soon as finished had been filled with 

 straw and hay and all held young 

 sparrows. Some were ready to leave 

 and some just hatched. The undis- 

 turbed nests were full of young swal- 

 lows or well incubated sets. 



I don't believe I ever read or heard 

 of the sparrows using Swallow's nest 

 in this way before, and wonder if this 

 often happens. 



R. B. Simpson, 

 Warren, Pa. 



Personal. 



Mr. John Williams, one of the fore- 

 most naturalists of Iowa, writes us 

 that last summer he enjoyed a trip, 

 taking him to Boston, New London, 

 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 

 Washington, etc., where he met many 

 of the prominent naturalists and 

 scientists, and of course, enjoyed the 

 experience, the same as did Ye Editor. 



A. M. Ingersol of San Diego, Cali- 

 fornia, writes: "I made a seven 

 months' sight-seeing journey last 

 year, visiting various points of inter- 

 est between Quebec, Cuba, Massachu- 

 setts and Idaho and had the pleasure 

 of meeting some grand men who are 

 interested in my hobby. Spent hours 

 in examining specimens and talking 

 over bird nesting experiences. Of 

 course the greatest sight of all was 

 John E. Thayer's collection. 



"We were in Cuba two months and 

 through kind assistance of Baynard, 

 Martin and Nicholson, I was able to 

 get an unlimited collecting permit, and 

 had counted on taking a lot of good 

 specimens in that collector's paradise, 

 but my health again failed, and I was 

 too weak to climb trees and lacked 

 strength to wade swamps. So my en- 

 tire take for the year was only forty- 

 eight sets." 



