THE NIDIOLOGIST 



93 



DR. K-MIL HOLUB 



Dr. Holub's collections on the second expe- 

 dition included over 900 skulls of large mam- 

 mals, 514 skins of large species of mammals, 

 all set up ; 2,264 birds and bird skins, 900 

 eggs, 220 fish, 702 mollusks, 543 reptiles, and 

 about 35,000 other .-—-•-. 



specimens repre- 

 senting various de- 

 partments of zool- 

 ogy. 



During a lively 

 fight with natives 

 on his last African 

 journey he lost one 

 of his valuable 

 diaries, containing || 

 data as to the nests 

 and eggs of the 

 smaller birds met 

 with. The descrip- 

 tion of the nests 

 of the birds of 

 prey, being fewer 

 in number, were more readily called to mind. 



Next year Dr. and Mrs. Holub expect to 

 make a third expedition into Africa. 



A Beautiful Oriole's Nest. 



ON June 14, 1890, I collected a set of five 

 of the most perfect eggs of Icteriis gal- 

 bula that it has ever been my delight to 

 gaze upon. I took the nest with them, and it is 

 also a structure of rare beauty, being composed 

 externally of an ashy-white, hempen fiber, lined 

 with white horse-tail hair, a red hairlike fiber, 

 peculiar to all nests of galbida that I have ever 

 examined, and a cottony substance. It is very 

 closely Avoven, probably by a pair of young 

 birds, which makes it a very neat-looking affair. 

 It was woven'or suspended from the fork at the 

 extremity of a long, slender branch of a larger 

 limb, some fifteen feet above a river. The tree 

 in which it was built was a tall elm which leaned 

 over the water. 



The eggs have an ashy-white ground, with a 

 faint roseate tint, which faded to a bluish tint 

 after blowing, with the exception of one. The 

 markings are spots, blotches, lines, scrawls, and 

 fine hairlines of rich brown, with faint under- 

 markings of slaty-blue, distributed over the en- 

 tire surface ; the most of the brown markings 

 on or near the larger end ; shape, oval. 



The birds are so well known that I will not 

 describe them here. I will say, however, that 

 they were both in beautiful plumage. I failed 

 in several attempts to get the nest I have de- 

 scribed ; but on June 14, with a hook at the 

 end of a long rod, I succeeded in pulling the 



nest in to me so I could cut it from the limb, 

 as you see it in the accompanying half-tone on 

 page 87. 



I will state here that I used a looking-glass 

 at the end of a rod with success, but a knife 

 and a net similarly fixed failed me. In looking 

 over my field notes I find that on June 14, 1892, 

 I collected a set of six eggs of galbula, with the 

 nest, which, by the aid of a pair of marine 

 glasses, I had watched the birds build ; the 

 eggs were too badly incubated to save with the 

 exception of two. 



On June 17, same year, I collected another 

 set of three eggs and a young bird. If ever I 

 was sorry for taking a nest it was this one. I 

 had watched this pair through the marine glasses^ 

 Neither of the nests was as pretty as the first 

 one mentioned. During the season of 1894 I 

 found no less than ten nests of Icterus galbida, 

 all inaccessible but one, without some danger- 

 ous climbs on account of tall trees (and dogs). 

 George W. Vosburg. 



Columbus, Wis. 



Taxidermal Notes. 



A NOTE in the December Nidiologist, 

 advocating beach sand as an absorbent, 

 suggests that many collectors would be 

 benefited if each would make pubhc, through 

 the columns of the " NiD," any methods that 

 they have found to be useful and out of the 

 usual order. 



As for beach sand, I have given it a fair trial 

 at Mr. Henshaw's suggestion, and in collecting 

 sea birds I have found it quite useful, but not 

 all that could be asked. 



A year or more ago, while collecting sea 

 birds that were unusually fat, I tried among 

 other absorbents dry sawdust. This is easily 

 obtained at any planing mill, and is by far the 

 best thing I have tried. In collecting fat sea 

 birds I seldom take the trouble to cut the fat 

 from the skin. If plenty of dry pine sawdust 

 is used in skinning, the oil will not injure the 

 feathers, and any grease that maybe left on the 

 skin may be very thoroughly removed by rub- 

 bing with an abundance of sawdust. Unusually 

 fat specimens I treat by covering the fresh skin 

 (before re-turning) with a pile of sawdust and 

 then walking on it, being careful not to crush 

 the skull. The dry pine cuts the fat cells and 

 instantly absorbs the oil, cleaning a fat skin in 

 half the time required to do it with a knife, and 

 much better. The finer dust may be sifted out 

 and used for small birds, and is much better 

 than plaster or cornraeal. 



A. W. Anthony. 



San Diego, Cal. 



