THE NIDIOLOGIST 



25 



land, and was composed of fine grasses 

 wholly. The eggs were beauties, about the 

 size of the Yellow Warbler, with a pink- 

 grayish ground color, spotted with dark 

 umber so thickly at the top as to hide the 

 ground color. 



E. ARN01.D. 

 Battle Creek, Mich. 



[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



Do Wading Birds Stoim? 



As further proof in confirmation of the 

 fact that wading birds do swim, I 

 would say that during my dozen 

 years' work as a field collector I have been 

 compelled repeatedly to chase even with a 

 boat, on account of the depth of the water, 

 very many varieties of the waders — such, 

 for instance, as the Great Blue Heron 

 {Ardea herodias), American ICgret {Ardea 

 egrettd). Roseate Spoonbill {Ajaja ajajci) 

 and very many of the smaller birds. 



The most noted instance that ever came 

 under my observation, however, was in 

 April, 1 89 1, while collecting on the south 

 shore of the island ot Marignana in the 

 West Indies. A flock of American Flam- 

 ingoes {^Phoenicopterus ruber) came flying 

 down about parallel with the coast, and 

 about one hundred yards out over the 

 the water. When nearly opposite I selected 

 my bird and gave him one barrel, which 

 brought him down at once. 



I immediately selected my next bird and 

 gave him the other barrel. The game was 

 a long distance off at the first and had 

 turned their course somewhat and were still 

 further off at the second shot. I saw that 

 my bird was hit but did not at once come 

 down, but left the flock and turned his 

 course at about right angles, directly out 

 over the ocean, gradually lowering, and 

 after flying about half a mile it struck the 

 water. 



One of my men, who was a very expert 

 sculler and who was on my large boat. 



which lay at anchor out about two hundred 

 yards distant, at once took his small boat 

 and started for my prize, expecting to go 

 and pick it up as it was down in the water. 

 He soon saw that the bird was making 

 about as good headway out in the ocean as 

 he was, when he doubled his energy. 

 When he had approached within about 

 fifty yards of the bird it arose and flew, 

 this time going about the same distance 

 that it did the first time, before it was again 

 compelled to take to the water. He then 

 gave up the chase, being fully a mile and a 

 half from shore, the bird having made al- 

 most two-thirds as good time as he could in 

 sculling his boat. When the bird raised to 

 fly he was somewhere in from thirty to fifty 

 fathoms of water. 



I must say, however, that I never knew 

 any of the waders to swim unless injured 

 and doing so in their efforts to escape. 



D. P. Ingraham. 



Pueblo, Colorado. 



Self-Destruction of Dooes. 



IN August, 1892, while crossing through 

 Northern Arizona and New Mexico, I 

 noticed a curious exhibition of self- 

 destruction on the part of the Turtle Doves 

 along the line of the railroad. On one 

 afternoon especially the species was unusu- 

 ally abundant, flocks rising from the side of 

 the track, ahead of the engine, sometimes 

 flying off to one side, but quite frequently 

 wheeling and passing over the coaches, 

 usually quite low, and not infrequently 

 coming so straight at the windows that I 

 thought they must surely dash through; 

 saving themseves, however, at the last 

 moment by a sudden rise, which just 

 enabled them to clear the train. Single 

 birds, however, often allowed the train to 

 almost pass them before rising, and when 

 they at last took wing almost always tried 

 to pass over the train, but a good many of 

 them dashed against the panels between 

 the windows and fell back dead. Others 



