20G 



THE OOLOGIST. 



animal's hole you will find a Ijiurowing 

 owl's nest. 



The cry of this Innl is at night, and 

 is soi't of a niournful noise not unlike 

 the second decadence of coyotte howl. 



S. & G., 

 (Tibson, Neb. 



After "Gator's" Eggs. 



I have a little* to say about my suc- 

 cess in finding alligatOL- eggs, which I 

 trust will be of interest to the readers 

 of tile OOLOGIST. 



Last year, with little troul)]e, I found 

 several alligator's nests containing a 

 great many eggs; but not so this year, 

 early in August, I, in com- 

 pany with Mr. Herman Weislahn, of 

 Apopka., started oflf with great ex- 

 pectations for eggs. We walked to the 

 places where I found some last year, 

 but nothing but old nests could w^e 

 find. N(jw, I shall first give you an 

 itlea of an alligator's nest: The alliga- 

 tor tries to tind the roughest and most 

 unsurpassable places in a hammock; 

 here she cleans a round place two to 

 four feet in diameter for her nest, 

 liaving done this, a layer of muck is 

 brought, upon which slie lays a layer of 

 eggs, then comes muck and then 

 eggs again, and so on until the eggs are 

 all in the nest and well covered up. 

 The pile is sometimes three feet high. 



When going along the shore of a lake 

 you can see whtjther thei'e is a nest 

 near or not, for the alligator has a very 

 nice path from the water to the nest. 



Now, again to the egg hunt. We 

 walked a good many miles, waded 

 through water, got stuck in the mud, 

 scratched by blackberry vines, stung by- 

 wasps and came home with nothing 

 but a cold. I shall not hunt for alliga- 

 tor eggs again this year, and hope that 

 others have had better success. 

 Nicholas V. Linden, 



Orange Co.,^Fla. 



Notes from Northern Minnesota. 



June 18, 1890, My cousin found a 

 nest of the Virginia Rail in 'a small 

 marsli while we were hunting for the 

 nests of water birds. 



The nest, a slight platform of dried 

 reeds hid among the growing reeds 

 \ contained seven eggs in various stages 

 \ of incubation. 



June 20. Found a nest of the Bobo- 

 link in a dry slough. Nest on the 

 ground, hidden from view by a willow 

 bush about two feet high. Composed 

 of dried grass. 



We saw the male Bobolink before we 

 found the nest and so we began to hunt 

 for it. After going a short distance, we. 

 scared up the female. It Hew close to 

 the ground a short distance and then 

 disappeared in the bushes. The place- 

 where it Hew up Avas several feet from 

 the nest. The nest contained four fresh 

 eggs. 



June 22. Took a set of four eggs a 

 the Clay-colored Sparrow {Spizella pal- 

 lida.) Nest and eggs similar to those of 

 ( Sjnzelhi socia lis) . 



July 5. A few days ago found two 

 nests of the Black-throated Bunting. 

 Nests composed of fine round grasses- 

 and tine dried weed stems, lined with 

 very fine grasses and a few horse-hairs. 

 One nest was on the ground in a clump 

 of grass and the other in a small bush. 

 The former contained young birds and 

 the latter, four fresh, light-blue eggs. I 

 took the eggs and to-day I found a cow- 

 bird's egg in the nest out of which I had 

 taken the eggs. 



June 22. Found a uest of the Prairie 

 Horned Lark. It contained four of its- 

 own eggs and four Covvbird's eggs. 

 Roll A P. Cukkie, 

 Polk Co., Minn. 



A juvenile monthly presents the fol- 

 lowing sample of "good rhetoric" in its 

 editorial column, viz.: "What ails the 

 'Tennessee PhilatelisV'} W^e haven't saw 

 it since may." 



