90 



THE OOLOGIST 



and I had collected several sets of Vul- 

 ture eggs. 



I took the lead and made my way 

 through the rocks, first crawling and 

 then walking, looking under every 

 cliff and watching for Vultures to fly 

 out. The air was alive with both 

 Black and Turkey Vultures taut none 

 in the cliffs. I stepped down from one 

 rock to another and as I did this a 

 buzz, buzz, buzz greeted me. Then I 

 jumped from this buzz over to a rock 

 to safety. 



I looked back and there was a big 

 six foot rattler coiled and ready to 

 make a jump at me. I had stepped 

 on the snake. I quickly got some 

 rocks and then the battle started, but 

 my rocks did not take any effect on 

 Mr. Snake. After he gave me good 

 warning by rattling continuously for 

 five minutes, he crawled into a hole. 

 So I went on hunting eggs. Mr. Zeit- 

 lin was a quarter of a mile behind 

 hunting the cliffs below me. He saw 

 a Vulture light in the cliffs above so 

 he called up to where I had been hunt- 

 ing. 



I stopped on the bluff sides to wait 

 for him and soon he showed up. I 

 ask him why he had not hunted the 

 lower bluffs. He said he saw a Vul- 

 ture light above him and went up to 

 investigate. So we together went 

 back to this place and Mr. Zeitlin 

 showed me where he had crawled up 

 into the cliff and right there lay an- 

 other rattlesnake coiled up but was 

 not buzzing. Right where Mr. Zeitlin 

 had been looking for eggs. The rain 

 came and we hit the road for home 

 and on arriving at Mr. Zeitlin's home 

 we found out the bad news that his 

 father had died during the night while 

 we were camping. 



Ramon Graham, 

 ' Texas. 



BIRDS IN NORTHERN ILLINOIS 



I am sending in this article in hopes 

 it will be of interest to oologists and to 

 help our paper along. 1 have seen 

 this plan used before and I think it is 

 a good one and very interesting. I 

 will tell of all the birds that I know of 

 around here that breed here. Tli3 

 birds here that are increasing are: 

 Green Heron. 

 Spotted Sandpiper. 

 Killdeer 



Mourning Dove. 

 Screech Owl. 

 Flicker. 



Red Headed Woodpecker. 

 Chimney Swift (fast). 

 Ruby Throated Humming Bird (EasL). 

 Phoebe. 

 Blue Jay 

 American Crow. 

 Cowbird (fast). 

 Red Winged Blackbird (fast) 

 Baltimore Oriole. 

 Bronze Grackle. 

 English Sparrow (very fast). 

 Vesper Sparrow. 

 Field Sparrow. 

 Song Sparrow. 

 Purple Martin. 

 Bank Swallow. 

 Rough Winged Swallow. 

 Brown Thrasher. 

 Maryland Yellow Throat. 

 Catbird. 



House Wren (fast). 

 Chickadee. 



The birds here holding their own' 

 are: 



Bob White. 

 Marsh Hawk. 

 Yellow Billed Cuckoo. 

 Black Billed Cuckoo 

 Belted Kingfisher. 

 Nighthawk. 

 Kingbird. 

 Wood Pewee. 

 Bobolink. 

 Meadowlark. 



