THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



25 



A RED-LETTER COLLECTING TRIP. 



BY SCOLOPAX.t:::AA,070^i-: 



There are bright spots in the lives of all 

 collectors, but as a rule there is one partic- 

 ular collecting trip which leaves a more 

 lasting impression upon us, and which we 

 may truthfully record as a red-letter day. 

 One of these happ}^ experiences occurred 

 here in Southern Michigan a number of 

 5^ears ago, and the trip was so successful 

 and productive in unusual finds that I have 

 selected it as a subject for this article, being 

 satisfied that it will interest most of the 

 readers of the Nidiologist. 



It was the second of June, and we were 

 astir by two a. m., for the distance was 

 considerable, and Ben and I were bound to 

 convince our friend Jim that Kalamazoo 

 county was a grand collecting ground. 

 Jim was from a large city and ver}^ little 

 acquainted with the treasures to be taken 

 from marshy tracts on the borders of the 

 various lakes surrounding our village. He 

 was also decidedly skeptical, as is naturally 

 to be supposed in the case of an enthusias- 

 tic oologist who has had no opportunity to 

 study shore birds. 



After taking it leisurely across country, 

 visiting various promising places, we 

 reached Grassy lyake, a shallow, marsh 

 bordered pond, eleven miles distance from 

 our starting point. Here Ben and I divest- 

 ed ourselves of our garments from our 

 waists down, and loading Jim with the 

 entire outfit of "duffle," we plunged in. Ben 

 followed around the marshj' borders on one 

 side and I on the other, while Jim, sweat- 

 ing under the triple accumulation of camp 

 chuck, clothes and fixings, made for the 

 other end of the pond, occasionally yelling 

 at us to hurry up, as he thought our efforts 

 fruitless. I had hardly gone twenty yards 

 ere I flushed an Ortolan or Carolina Rail 

 from a superior set of eleven eggs, and had 

 hardly transferred them to my trout bask- 

 et, and taken proper notes, when Ben pro- 

 claimed with a voice that would drown a 

 calliope in full blast, that he had found a 



set of eight Carolina Rail's eggs. This so 

 excited Jim that he dumped his entire load, 

 divested himself of his lower garments and 

 wildly plunged toward Ben to have a look 

 at the nest, as the find was new to him. In 

 his rashness and inexperience he missed a 

 bog and down he went, sticking the sleeve 

 of his biled shirt into the muck, while the 

 mire flew in all directions as he scrambled 

 and craw-fished to a promising tussock of 

 grass and weeds. As the boys say, "we 

 gave him the laugh," which quite soured 

 him for the time, but he turned the tables 

 on us more than once during the next 

 forty-eight hours, and at the start for hours 

 it was a case where " the pot called the 

 kettle black," if anyone spoke a word. 



Passing on, taking a few exceptionally 

 well marked sets of Red-wing's eggs from 

 the dozens of nests around me, and secur- 

 ing three particularly brilliant specimens of 

 the water garter snake for my alcohol can, 

 I espied a particularly large spotted water 

 snake sunning himself on the dr)^ elevated 

 grass well out from shore. It was so 

 lethargic that ray approach was not noticed. 

 Dissection showed his stomach and gullet 

 to contain an adult field mouse and two 

 nearly full-grown Red-wings. This species 

 of snake is very destructive to the small 

 birds and mammals which inhabit the 

 vicinity of lake shores. 



On my way I found four more nests of 

 the Carolina Rail, two containing three 

 eggs each and one with five, all of which I 

 left. The other held nine eggs, while a 

 broke none and two perfect, fresh eggs were 

 found lying in the water just outside of the 

 nest. This is a condition frequently ob- 

 served in the Ortolan. 



(To be Continued.) 

 »-•-< — 



We have received a neat booklet, "The 

 Summer Birds of Greene Count}-, Pennsyl- 

 vania, " by J. Warren Jacobs of Waynes- 

 burg. It is full of intertesting notes, a care- 

 fully compiled list of the birds found in the 

 breeding season, giving the localities fre- 

 quented by them, and in most cases the 

 nesting date and number of eggs composing 

 the complement. 



