174 



THE OOLOOIST 



towards Stony Lake, which is about 

 a mile north of Birch Lake. The lake 

 itself is nearly round, maybe a quar- 

 ter of a mile or so across. The shores 

 are low and level; some sandy beach 

 and some of more swampy nature. 

 When looking over the lake, one will 

 see an old muskrat house here and 

 there. 



I did not have to look long for the 

 loon's nest this time. At a great dis- 

 tance I could see a black object on 

 top of one of the muskrat houses. 

 As I got nearer I could see the male 

 bird in the water some 200 yards or 

 so from the nest. As I kept coming 

 nearer and the male bird saw that 

 there was an intruder nearby, he 

 thought it high time for an alarm. 

 "Ho-lee-ee-oo, ho-lee-ee-oo" is what he 

 tremulously tooted. Like through a 

 great speaking trumpet this warning 

 went to the lady of his heart. That 

 then is their alarm note, so different 

 from their ordinary call note "wah- 

 ho-oo." Just as soon as the alarm 

 was given, the dark object slid off 

 the muskrat house; just one plunge, 

 and it was out of sight. Before I got 

 to the nest, the female was swimming 

 away out in the lake, as unconcerned 

 as if nothing had happened. I had 

 to do a little wading in order to get 

 to the nest, but wasn't it worth the 

 while? Here, on top of the moss- 

 covered roof of the domicile of the 

 muskrat, in a shallow depression, not 

 more than an inch deep, lay the two 

 treasures of this "Lady of the Lakes." 

 The top of the mound was about 10 

 inches above the water and the water 

 outside of it about 3 feet deep, just 

 nicely deep enough for a dive. When 

 comparing this mound with several 

 others in near vicinity, I noticed that 

 this particular one was the only one 

 that had deep water along side of it. 

 From this I gather, that the loons 

 are taking that advantage into consid- 

 eration when selecting a nesting site. 



In shape the eggs resemble those of 

 a domestic goose. The color is very 

 dark clay brown, with black and gray- 

 ish spots evenly distributed all over 

 the semi-glossy surface of the entire 

 egg. Incubation fresh on the 31st ot 

 May. Size of eggs: 3.25 x 2.11 and 

 3.26 x 2.10. Whether this is the aver- 

 age size or smaller, I am not prepared 

 to say, as I have no other specimens 

 for comparison. C. A. Reed, in his 

 Bird Guide (part I) gives the average 

 size as 3.50 x 2.25 and Ottomar Rein- 

 ecke, in an article in a recent issue 

 of the Oologist (Vol. XXX, No. 11) 

 states that the average size is 3.50 

 x 2.20. 



In closing this episode I may say 

 that the two loons are at this minute 

 swimming in Birch Lake, within a 

 couple of stone throws from my door. 



Ernest S. Norman. 

 Mulvihill, Manitoba. 



A Record of the Nesting of the Black- 

 Billed Cuckoo at Philadelphia. 



The Black-billed Cuckoo, never a 

 common bird in the vicinity of Phila- 

 delphia, is now of extremely rare oc- 

 curence in this locality, in summer as 

 I haven't seen any birds or found any 

 nests for several years past. 



In view of the fact it is of impor- 

 tance to place on record the nests of 

 the Black-billed Cuckoo which I have 

 found here during previous years, as 

 the data will show how uncommon a 

 bird it has always been and will prob- 

 ably add something to our knowledge 

 of nidifi cation. 



Unless stated otherwise, all nests 

 were found in Philadelphia County, 

 Pa., and most of them were discov- 

 ered in the Northeastern part of the 

 County. 



1. Four fresh eggs, July 7, 1898, 

 Frankfort: Nest twenty feet up in a 

 big apple tree in edge of small or- 

 chard; placed about twenty feet out 

 en a horizontal limb, near the extrem- 



