THE OOLOGIST 



9 



was a very disagreeable odor about 

 the rookery, so after I had looked at a 

 few more nests I started to leave. 

 When I reached the edge of the grove 

 I saw that the Night Herons were not 

 the only birds that inhabitated this 

 location, because there was a little 

 Maryland Yellow-throat doing his best 

 to drown out the discordant notes of 

 the Night Herons with his charming 

 little song. 



THE BARN OWL IN CENTRAL 

 IOWA 



On November 12, 1921 some boys 

 captured a Barn Owl in a hay mow 

 on a farm two miles east of town and 

 brought it into town and had it on ex- 

 hibition on the street and it caused 

 quite an excitement as but very few 

 had ever seen one before. They re- 

 turned it to the barn from which they 

 found it and it remained in the barn 

 for several days. 



This is the first occurrence of this 

 Owl which I have recorded in Story 

 county in the past seventeen years. 

 John L. Cole, 

 Nevada; Iowa. 

 THE MAGPIE IN isTORY COUNTY, 

 IOWA 

 December 4, 1921, a male Magpie 

 was shot in the sotuhwestern part of 

 this county. It is the first record that 

 I have of this species in this locality. 

 There are reports of this bird migrat- 

 ing farther east in Iowa this winter 

 than ever before. I am having this 

 ■speciman mounted which was shot in 

 this county. 



John L. Cole, 

 Nevada, la. 



COBB'S ISLAND BIRD LIFE 



At Cobb's Island, Virginia, there is 

 abundant bird life. More, in fact, than 

 any other place of its size I have ever 

 seen. The island is only seven or 

 eight miles long, probably less than 

 that now as the sea is gradually cut- 



ting off one end, and about a quarter 

 of a mile wide. There is practically 

 no sand, the whole island being 

 covered with sticky, black mud in 

 which sea grass and fiddler crabs 

 abound. Just across the bay the island 

 there is another smaller island which 

 is called the "Gull March." The place 

 is well named. Never have I seen 

 more gulls than I had the pleasure of 

 seeing on a trip across the bay to this 

 marsh one morning in early June. It 

 was just after a "Nor'easter" and as 

 the weather was unfit for fishing I 

 went over to the marsh to kill time 



As soon as I landed on the island a 

 cloud of gulls rose in the air and there 

 was such a bedlam one could scarce 

 hear ones self think as the saying is. I 

 had not gone twenty yards from the 

 boat when I found a Gull nest with two 

 eggs. I had not been looking for eggs 

 as I believed it was a little early but 

 then I began to look. On standing up 

 on a tiny hillock of grass, driftwood, 

 etc., I could see nests and eggs in 

 every direction. Some with only one 

 egg and others with the full set. I 

 collected about six or seven sets, sat 

 marking them right there with my 

 fountain pen to avoid mixing the sets 

 up and then walked about ever the 

 marsh to look it over. 



I found several eggs freshly broken 

 and removed from the nest, done 1 sup- 

 pose by Crows as there are no snakes 

 on a salt marsh. 



Also found a Rail nest with eleven 

 eggs which I took and one with 

 thirteen which I was forced to leave 

 as my hat was already full and no 

 way handy to carry any more. 



These eggs were all Laughing Gull 

 eggs. There did not appear to be any 

 other kind of egg, except the Rail eggs 

 on the entire island. 



I believe it would be possible to load 

 a wagon with eggs on this island about 

 the middle of June. Irving C. Lunsford. 



