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THE OOLOGIST 



cotton has been inserted anywhere. 

 The cotton merely makes the pulling 

 back the harder. In cleaning the skull 

 cut away the rear partitions of the eye- 

 sockets so that the cotton may be in- 

 serted from the rear through the neck. 

 If the work has been done quickly and 

 accurately so far the skin will now be 

 fresh, limp, and in excellent natural 

 order, neither shrunken nor unduly 

 stretched in any part. Arsenic may 

 now be applied to areas not before 

 reached, and the stuffing of the skin 

 carried on as usual. Speed means a 

 uniformity of specimens too, which is 

 desirable. It seems that all things be- 

 ing considered, the most important 

 factor in making perfect bird skins is 

 speed coupled with accuracy. When a 

 bird is rapidly skinned a large part of 

 the arrangement of feathers, etc., 

 simply takes care of itself. 



The above is offered merely with the 

 hope that an added word now and 

 then may urge the rising generation on 

 to perfection. Anyone who sees daily 

 hundreds of bird skins naturally comes 

 to pass on them quickly. It is the be- 

 lief of the writer that the best skins 

 he has seen were rapidly made, and 

 experience of late has certainly borne 

 out the supposition. But let it not be 

 thought that accuracy or thoroughness 

 should ever be sacrifieced, merely for 

 speed. 



George M. Sutton. 



A NIGHT HERON ROOKERY 



By Chandler M. Brooks 

 The sand dunes near Ipswich, Mas- 

 sachusetts have furnished material for 

 many bird publications. I have visited 

 these dunes and have found them very 

 interesting. 



In the particular part of the sand 

 dunes with which I am familiar there 

 are two groves of pitch pine. In one 

 of these groves many Black-crowned 

 Night Herons build their nests each 



year. My last visit to this grove was 

 made on May 30, 1921. 



Near tliis rookery are many ponds 

 and the Night Herons were fishing in 

 them. These ponds are shallow and 

 the birds wade along the edges gather- 

 ing their food as they go. The Herons 

 were so numerous that every time 1 

 looked I saw great numbers of them. 

 There were many birds flying about, 

 and as I came nearer the grove they 

 were surprised because in every tree, 

 there were several herons and on ac- 

 count of the shortness of the trees and 

 the long legs of the birds they were 

 very conspicuous and caused the grove 

 to liave a peculiar appearance. These 

 birds were making a clamorous noise 

 and when I approached nearer it 

 seemed that each bird redoubled his 

 efforts and they made such a din that 

 they could be heard for a long dis- 

 tance. All about the grove I could see 

 the egg-shells that the birds had cast 

 from their nests. Some of these shells 

 were almost whole and I could hardly 

 understand how young birds could get 

 out through such small openings. 



When I went down into the grove 

 there were many egg-shells there also. 

 I wanted to see some of the young 

 Night Herons so I climbed a small 

 tree which had three nests in it. 

 From my position in this tree I could 

 see into eight nests. In two of these 

 nests there were small birds covered 

 with dark gray down, and I was very 

 much interested in the fact that the 

 lining of their mouths was very dark 

 gray in color. In the other nests 

 which I saw there were from three to 

 four eggs each. 



The trees in the grove were dying, 

 and I learned afterwards that after 

 the Night Herons have nested in a 

 grove for a few years the trees die. 

 The grove was not large, but accord- 

 ing to a very careful estimate, it con- 

 tained nearly a thousand nests. There 



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