THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



159 



a nest, and although I saw no young birds, 

 most of the full sets were partially incu- 

 bated. 



I now signalled to ray boatman, who was 

 a little way off shore fishing; and heavily 

 laden with eggs, boarded the dory again. 

 While we were making for the next island 

 I looked over my specimens, and was sur- 

 prised at the great variety in the color and 

 markings of the Terns' eggs. They merged 

 from dark brown ones with almost black 

 markings, somewhat resembling those of 

 the Black Tern, to extremely light-colored 

 specimens, either pale bufFy or drab, and I 

 had one egg which was blue, with a bold 

 ring of black round the small end. 



The next islet was too small to offer a 

 favorable collecting field, but I landed on 

 the last of the string, several acres in ex- 

 tents The only birds I saw were a few 

 Terns and Sandpipers; but I was rejoiced 

 to observe in a low bank, a number of 

 holes, which I was convinced were exca- 

 vated by Petrels. The first was speedily 

 dug out, but was evidently not completed. 

 The next one smelt as if it were inhabited, 

 so we went to work on it; but the hole ran 

 under a rock, imbedded in the soil, and it 

 took some industrious digging to reach the 

 extremity — " fetchbottom, " as my compan- 

 ion termed it. That done, however, he 

 ran his hand in, but brought it out pretty 

 suddenly covered with oil, which lent him 

 a pungent and disagreeable odor for the 

 rest of the day. The oil was disgorged as 

 a protective measure by the bird. This is 

 an invariable custom of the species when 

 irritated. He brought the bird, too, which, 

 however, refused to fly till cast into the air. 

 We then secured the egg, which was white, 

 considerably soiled, with a scanty ring of 

 . reddish dots about the larger end. There 

 was some difficulty about the next bird, as 

 my companion firmly refused to pull it out, 

 although I represented to him that he 

 couldn't possibly smell au)'^ worse, — which 

 was a fact. But we finally accomplished 

 the end in view by punching her with a 



stick; which she bit, and was hauled out. 



It now being past dinner time, we re- 

 turned to the boat, and were soon back to 

 camp, well satisfied with our cruise. 



Decapod.. 



Cooper Ornithological Club. 



(Organized June 22, 1893. Officers for present 

 term: President, F. A. Schneider; Vice-President, 

 H. R. Taylor; vSecretary, C. Barlow; and Treasurer, 

 W. H. Osgood.) 



THE regular monthly meeting was held 

 June 2, with a good attendance. Mr. 

 Barlow read an article on the White- 

 tailed Kite {Elanus leucurus), dealing prin- 

 cipally with its nesting habits in the Santa 

 Clara Valley as observed by him. In 

 several nests examined small balls of skin 

 and bones similar to those often found in 

 Barn Owls' nests were noticed, from which 

 it -would appear that the Kite has the habit 

 of devouring its prey without skinning it, 

 and afterwards ejects the indigestible por- 

 tions as do the Owls. The usual nesting 

 site is a live-oak tree, of not very great 

 height. A set of eggs taken April 19, 1894, 

 were exhibited. The nest was about 30 

 feet from the ground in a live-oak, rather 

 shallow and lined with Spanish moss and 

 stubble, in which the eggs were sunken. 

 Three eggs constituted the set. Mr. Taylor 

 took a handsome set of five eggs on April 9 

 and on the 17th of April discovered a nest 

 containing two eggs and two pink, downy 

 young. 



Mr. Osgood read a paper on the Desert 

 and American Sparrow^ Hawks, exhibiting 

 a skin of each species. The paper was in 

 substance as follows: "The American 

 Sparrow Hawk and its subspecies inhabits 

 all of North and South America, the West 

 Indies and other islands adjacent to the 

 continents, breeding throughout almost its 

 entire range. In the July number of the 

 Auk of 1892 Dr. E. A. Mearns has a most 

 excellent review of this species, in whish he 

 describes for the first time Falco sparveriiis 

 deserticolus and F. s. pemnsiilaris, or the 



