I04 



THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



Jeal'eniug we could scarcely hear each other 

 speak. It was a glorious sight to see the 

 nests and eggs l.ving around, and they 

 were so numerous we had to look where we 

 were stepping, or we should have trod upon 

 the eggs. The cowboy was going to make 

 a start right away and collect the eggs in 

 his hat, but I stopped him and told him we 

 would only collect the best clutches and 

 those that were fresh, and that every clutch 

 we took would have to be marked with a 

 pencil. He seemed rather taken aback, as 

 his ambition was to collect all the eggs in a 

 heap and count and see how manj^ there 

 were, but I insisted that he should not 

 touch an egg until I was ready. So I 

 threaded my way in and out amongst the 

 nests, enjoying the scene in a quiet sort of 

 way, and my feelings can be better imag- 

 ined by my readers than I can describe 

 them. 



Once upon a time I would have yelled 

 out with joy, thrown mj^ hat into the 

 air, or stood on my head, or expressed my 

 delight in some other barbarous way, but 

 having gazed on similar scenes before, the 

 novelty had somewhat worn off. While I 

 was examining the nests, I told Harry he 

 might shoot half a dozeu Avocets, and he 

 proceeded to bring the birds down at once. 

 Walking in and out amongst the nests, I 

 came across one of the Lesser Scaup Duck 

 containing .seven fresh eggs. The nest was 

 a hollow in the grass lined with down, and 

 the birds were swimming out on the lake 

 some distance from the island. In a bank 

 of long grass was the Canada Goose nest, 

 containing seven eggs, laid snugly in a bed 

 of delicious grey down. After photograph- 

 ing the nest, both the down and eggs were 

 wrapped in a handkerchief. Harry, the 

 cowboy, was evidently trying to u.se up all 

 my ammunition, and I had almost forgot- 

 ten him, so engros.sed was I with the nests 

 and the scene around me. I called out to 

 him: "How many Avocets have you got?" 

 He replied, "eight." "Well, that's enough, 

 don't shoot any more." But after that he 

 turned his attention to the Ring-billed 



Gulls and Foster's Terns, and brought a 

 few down. 



We then proceeded to collect several sets 

 of each species, and after the eggs were 

 marked with the clutch number ; they were 

 packed in baskets brought for the purpose. 

 The Avocets nests were numerous, they 

 consisted of hollows in the sand, lined with 

 dry grass, and mostly contained four eggs. 

 The Gulls were evidently robbing the Avo- 

 cets of their eggs, as I found several broken 

 eggs scattered about the island. The Terns 

 nests were simply depressions in the sand 

 lined with a little grass. The Gull's nests 

 were rather bulky structures of grass and 

 weeds, and contained two or three eggs 

 each. 



We filled the two baskets with eggs and 

 then rowed back to where we had left the 

 horses and wagon, and after giving the ani- 

 mals a feed and drink, we proceeded to 

 demolish the sandwiches and pies we had 

 brought along with us, and after resting 

 awhile, we decided to walk round the lake, 

 which was about four miles in circumfer- 

 ence. So we tied up the horses to the 

 wagon and set out to walk around the shore 

 of the lake. On our way we shot specimens 

 of Marbled Godwit, Willet, Wilson's Phal- 

 arope and other birds. Killdeers and Bar- 

 tram's Sandpipers were nesting in numbers 

 along the beach, and we found two nests of 

 Wilson's Phalarope. 



We also flushed a Shoveller off its nest 

 and ten eggs — nest as usual a depression in 

 the grass, lined with down. It took us 

 longer to walk around the lake than we an- 

 ticipated, and as the sun was setting behind 

 the western hills we had still another mile 

 to walk. On coming in .sight of the wagon 

 we found one horse had gone, and Harry 

 broke the news gently to me, that we should 

 have to walk home. So we left our guns, 

 camera, eggs, and everj^thing else in the 

 wagon and turned the other horse loose and 

 followed him home, for he knew the way 

 probably better than we did. On our 

 return homeward I flushed a Chestnut-col- 

 lared Longspur off its nest and five eggs. 



