134 



THE OOLOGIST. 



mon Tern in my coUeotiorl. Tlv nests 

 were built of light dry rushes •cnrHed 

 up" into a firm platform. They were 

 fully as large, hut much lighter than a 

 Coot's nost, aud were small at the top 

 and deeply cupped. When the female 

 was on the nest she was i^ntirelv hidden 

 from sight, so deeply were ihe nests 

 cupped. These White Terns were far 

 less pugnacious than the Black Terns. 

 The Black Terns are always noisy and 

 dart down toward you, even strikinac 

 your head as you near their nest, and 

 their cries may be taken as an index to 

 find their nest — "hot or cold" — as you 

 are near or far from the nest. But the 

 Forster's Tern simply flushed from the 

 nest and then flew around high over 

 head, uttering a few loud rasping cries, 

 but otherwise taking little apparent in- 

 terest in what was going on beneath 

 After a time the cries of the females 

 brought the males, and the birds thus 

 reinforced— about a dozen in number 

 now — screamed so loudly that the frank- 

 lin's Gulls came over to watch the in- 

 trusion. 



As it was getting time for us to be 

 thinking of going home, we turned to- 

 ward the colony of Franklin's Gulls. 

 They were nesting plentifully and most 

 of the nests contained three olive-color- 

 ed eggs, blotched aud speckled with 

 deeper olive brown. We watched tho 

 odd birds for a time a-^ ihey screamed 

 and circled over head, and then we 

 went to shore, packed our eggs, and 

 started for lunch and the carriage. 

 Arrived there, we found binch ready. 

 My brother had found a Plover's (Bar- 

 tramian Sandpiper) nest with four fresh 

 eggs and had dug out a Kingfisher's nest 

 with a slightly incubated set of seven. 

 I photographed the Plover's nest and 

 eggs, but the plate fogged aud so I was 

 disappointed in the only photo 1 tried 

 to take. 



We got out of our wet, prickly clothes 

 as soon as we could, took a bath in a 

 secluded spot iu the clear water of the 



creek, put on dry garments, ate oar 

 lunch, to which the boys added warm 

 fripd bass and hard boiled Coot's eggs, 

 and started for home. The day was 

 not very fruitful in eggs. We did not 

 take many sets — Virginia Rail, one- 

 six; Yellow headed Blackbird, two- 

 four; American Bittern, one-four, 

 one-three; Blue-winged Teal, one-nine; 

 Redhead, one-one; Eared Grebe, six- 

 four; Forster's Tern, six-three; 

 Franklin's Gull, four-three; Bartram- 

 ian Sandpiper. oaB-four; and King- 

 fisher, one-seven 



But I feel that the time and discom- 

 fort spent were amply repaid by the m- 

 teresting sights we saw and the habits 

 of the various species — all common — 

 noted. I have never aimed at a large 

 collection of eggs, but I have aimed at 

 a collection of nicely prepared sets 

 which I have taken myself and of which 

 1 know the complete history. 



Next year I hope to spend a week at 

 Heron Lake where I hope to make some 

 more observations— interesting at least 

 to myself — and I hope to take some 

 good photographs, for I aim hereafter 

 to take a photograph of every set I add 

 to my collection. 



J. C. Knox, 

 Jackson, Minn. 



Sooty Grouse. 



In my opinion the Sooty Grouse is 

 one of our fine.iit game bird.-, they :i,i-e 

 of good a:Z' aid due ti.tvor, except in 

 thewiotei, when they live mostly on 

 fir leaves, at which limH they taste very 

 much like iheui. Two aud one half 

 pounds is a good siz -d Grouse, but I 

 killed one, a male, that weight-d three 

 and one-half pounds. This is the larg- 

 est oue I ever saw. 



I took measurements of tliis bird, 

 which were the following: Length, 21 

 inches; extent, 2y| inches; wing, 9; tail, 

 li\ bill, 1; toes. 2i; claw, |; head, 2i; 

 the color of eye, orange, brown; feet, 



