148 



THE OOLOGIST 



did not add to the pleasure of collect- 

 ing. 



Swan Lake cannot properly be 

 called a lake at all as it is a shallow 

 body of water containing perhaps fif- 

 teen hundred acres, and is well grown 

 up to rushes, wild rice, cat-tail and 

 swamp grass. It is a very easy mat- 

 ter to wade in this marsh as the bot- 

 tom is solid which is very much dif- 

 ferent from most of the marshes in 

 the Middle West. 



This marsh is surely a paradise for 

 the Yellow-headed and Red-wingeu 

 Blackbirds, as there were thousands 

 nesting here. When wading through 

 the rushes one is in sight of nests 

 at all times. These birds are a men- 

 ace to the crops within quite a dis- 

 tance from their nesting ground, and 

 most of the farmers are up in arms 

 against them on this account. 



It was here at this swamp that I 

 took my first set of Pied-billed Grebe, 

 on this trip. It contained seven eggs. 

 The nest was in water about knee 

 deep. The nest extended to the bot- 

 tom but did not rest very heavily on 

 it. It was composed of mud and de- 

 cayed rushes, and extended about 

 three inches above the water. The 

 nest was well concealed in thick 

 rushes which were three or four feet 

 above the water, and the nest was con- 

 nected or anchored to growing rushes, 

 although the nest which Mr. Paulson 

 found a few days previous was not 

 anchored to anything but rested se- 

 curely upon the mud bottom. 



At Rush Lake we found a great num- 

 ber of Black Terns nesting. Practical- 

 ly all of these nests were on aban- 

 doned muskrat houses. Wherever we 

 found these old muskrat houses we 

 were sure to find the little Terns. It 

 was easy to tell when we were ap- 

 proaching their nesting site, and even 

 before the eggs are laid they will in- 

 dicate by their actions the exact place 



which they have selected for their 

 home. 



It was at Swan Lake that Slim 

 found a set of four eggs on June 1. 

 This is, I think, quite rare. Fully two- 

 thirds of the nests contained three 

 eggs on the above date. There were 

 a few which contained one and two 

 eggs each on this date. 



There were a few pair of Least 

 Bittern nesting here. Also a large 

 number of Coot. There were several 

 pair of Foster's Terns nesting here, 

 but we were compelled to leave for 

 our homes before any of them had be- 

 gan to lay, however, we found a num- 

 ber of nests which were in course of 

 construction. These were simply piles 

 of rushes of the previous year's growth 

 collected together in a large mass. 

 Some had a slight depression, but the 

 most of them did not, as they had 

 not reached that stage in their con- 

 struction. 



It was on the evening of June 3, 

 that we started for our homes in the 

 central part of the state and arrived 

 at our destination about 11:30 p. m. 

 tired and sleepy but feeling fine. When 

 we unpacked our eggs the next day 

 which was Sunday, we found only 

 three broken out of the lot of inore 

 than three hundred. The evenings of 

 the next week or ten days were spent 

 in blowing and preparing eggs. Some 

 of these sets rests in our cabinets. 

 Others have gone on to other collec- 

 tors and some are still on our dupli- 

 cate lists. 



This ends the story of a most de- 

 lightful outing to the homes and breed- 

 ing grounds of a most interesting fam- 

 ily of birds. 



John L. Cole, 

 Nevada, Iowa. 



Sept. 27, 1922. 



