144 



THE OOLOGIST 



nests close together. We ran the 

 nose of the boat against it and climb- 

 ing up a few feet, Mr. Wayne looked 

 over the edge of the lowest. We wait- 

 ed a moment and "Three beautiful 

 eggs," he said. He looked in the 

 others. Two held three eggs and the 

 other three held two each. Mr. 

 Wayne reached into the nest and took 

 the first set of eggs which had ever 

 been taken in South Carolina. He 

 dropped back into the boat and we 

 looked upon the grayish eggs sprinkled 

 and splashed with brownish, with 

 varied feelings. It was hard to realize 

 that we had really accomplished what 

 had so long baffled the efforts of so 

 many. 



"For thirty years I've tried this," 

 said Mr. Wayne, "and it has come. at 

 last." Three happy people sat in 

 the boat and looked around on the 

 scene. Mr. Wayne had been in on 

 former freat funas, but it was a new 

 experience for my brother and me. To 

 say that we were happy would be put- 

 ting it mildly. At last we pushed on 

 and came to another tree in which 

 were three nests. I climbed up and 

 took two sets of three eggs each, and 

 after marking them carefully, Mr. 

 Wayne put them in the box with the 

 first set. We examined the nests care- 

 fully. They were much more sub- 

 stantially made than those of the 

 Herons, composed of sticks and twigs, 

 deeply capped and invariably lined 

 with moss. It would be hard to give 

 an idea of their number. Tree after 

 tree came into view that held any- 

 where from two to five nests. We 

 took only a few sets of the hundreds 

 that we saw. One nest held two per- 

 fectly white eggs. We remained in 

 the swamp for about two hours, and 

 then headed the boat back to the 

 bank. On a later visit in June, many 

 of the eggs had hatched and the 

 young birds were in many cases ready 

 to fly. It is to be hoped that this place 



will again be used next year, but some 

 evidences point to the fact that the 

 birds change their breeding haunts 

 very often. Certain it is that they 

 never bred here before, and the ques- 

 tion remains, will they return next 

 spring. 



Alexander Sprunt, Jr., 

 92 So. Bay St., 

 Charleston, S. C. 



FLYING RECORDS OF BIRDS FROM 

 LULL'S "ORGANIC EVOLUTION." 



Excerpted by Wm. D. Johnston, 

 Cincinnati, Ohio. 



Speed. A House Swallow (Chelidon 

 urbica) which flew from Ghent to Ant- 

 werp, a distance of 32 miles, in 12.5 

 minutes, maintained an average speed 

 of 158 miles per hour. 



Distance. The record is held by an 

 Albatross in the Brown University 

 Museum, which flew 3150 miles in 12 

 days — probably more as it rarely flies 

 in a straight line. The weight of this 

 bird was 18 pounds, its wing spread 11 

 feet 6 inches, and wing area 7 square 

 feet. 



Altitude. The great Vulture rises 

 from 700 feet to 15,000 feet, and Hum- 

 boldt, a very accurate observer, saw a 

 Condor hovering above Mt. Chim- 

 borazo, whose summit is 20,498 feet. 



UNUSUAL 



William B. Purdy, Milford, Michi- 

 gan, sends the unusual information 

 that on three miles of highway along 

 which was a 12,000 volt electric power 

 line, carried on tripod steel towers, 

 nineteen nests of the common King 

 Bird, similar to the one shown in the 

 half tone herewith, were found and 

 one of the towers had three nests and 

 three of them contained two nests 

 each. It is unusual that the bird 

 should select such a remarkable nest- 

 ing site in a territory so well covered 

 with trees and shrubbery. 



