THE OOLOGIST 



151 



but made our way towmd th« maple 

 swamp. Wheu near the outer edge we 

 saw our first Buteo gracefully glide 

 away, and felt certain that we were 

 near its nest. Slowly picking our way 

 we headed for a clump of maples well 

 in the middle of the swamp. Soon the 

 giving way of a bunch of rock-like moss 

 let us into the morass, and our effort to 

 keep dry being now futile, we pushed 

 on with less care a'^d soon saw the bulky 

 nest up in a tall maple that overhung 

 one of the many canals that meandered 

 through the place. A quick climb 

 brought the four eggs in view. The 

 tape was passed down and the distance 

 from the ground, thirty-six feet, enter- 

 ed in the field book, the eggs let down 

 and safely packed, and we were ready 

 for a new start. 



Now toward a wooded tract we bend 

 our way. The heavy wood, the swamps 

 and streams are there as of old, but the 

 search was nearly completed without 

 sight or sound of our quarry when we 

 reached the tree from which we look a 

 set of Accipiter cooperi on April 25, 1897. 

 The nest had not greatly altered in ap- 

 pearance from the previous year, but a 

 feather fluttered from the end of a nest- 

 stick, proclaiming occupancy. It was 

 a hard, dead shin of forty-two feet, and 

 when the nest was reached there was 

 no limb to stand upon, and the tree 

 near the nest took a bad incline compel- 

 ling one to hold to the under side of the 

 tree with his legs and one hand and re- 

 move the eggs with his other hand; but 

 the set of three handsome eggs was a 

 nice reward for the hardest climb of the 

 day. 



A cross-country tramp of some miles 

 through woods that had often turned 

 out their sets failed to add to our take, 

 and noon found us with the two sets, 

 beside a fountain of pure water, where 

 we lunched and lounged about for half 

 an hour. We then made direct for a 

 chestnut woods that held sets for us in 

 '93, '94, '95 and 97, and in an gnarled 



oak beside an old stone wall we saw the 

 nest, an old one which had been refit- 

 ted. It was thirty-six feet from the 

 ground and contained a set of three, 

 which were soon transferred to our 

 basket. 



The next nest was built between the 

 two main branches of an oak. The 

 branches were about eighteen inches 

 apart, and between them the nest snug- 

 ly rested on small cross-branches. This 

 is the only nest of this hawk which I 

 have ever seen resting other than in 

 the crotch of a tree, or in the fork of a 

 very large branch. The tree was in a 

 small swamp, completely surrounded 

 by water, and the nest was forty feet 

 from the base of the tree. The three 

 eggs which it contained were wholly 

 dift'erent from the set taken from the 

 same nest in '94. 



It was now getting late in the after- 

 noon, but we .''till had to visit another 

 locality to complete our plans. Here 

 again success awaited us. Forty feet 

 up in a live oak, in a wood half a mile 

 long and several rods wide, was the 

 nest, another old-timer, which had been 

 repaired for present needs. Thereon 

 sat the second Buteo. which we had 

 seen during the day. She left when we 

 had climbed about a third of the way to 

 the nest, which contained a set of two 

 eggs. As soon as these were packed 

 away we headed for the rendezvous, 

 where we were to meet my brother, 

 and arriving there at nearly the same 

 time he displayed three sets of three 

 eggs each, making an addition to our 

 cabinet for this day's outing of eight 

 sets, with a total of twenty-four eggs. 

 This is our red letter day in the collect- 

 ing of the eggs of Buteo lineatus. 



John H. Flanagan, 

 Providence, R. I. 



The Sora. 



The most abundant species of the Rail 

 family in Michigan, found in both pen- 



