.44 



THE OOLOGIST 



as -fifteen feet from her before she 

 half-ran, half-flew from the nest. 



To get back to the subject — this 

 C'lrlew's nest. I started the opera- 

 tions at a shallow water-hole, from 

 which the prairie sloped upward on all 

 sides almost imperceptibly, with a half 

 dozen Curlews feeding scattered with- 

 in sight. After sundry movements 

 around the depression to get any of 

 the feeding birds interested, at length 

 one of them showed the desired inter- 

 est. As I afterward guessed, he was 

 one hundred fifty yards from the nest 

 when he began his demonstrations, 

 and just an hour from that time I was 

 at the nest, while three other males 

 were assisting the owner in cackling 

 at me overhead. The nest was about 

 two hundred yards from the water- 

 hole and near an abandoned road 

 across the bench. The female sat 

 close during the hubbub, undisturbed 

 by the commotion, for you must re- 

 member that the male as a rule makes 

 his demonstrations on the opposite 

 side of the disturber from the nest, 

 and this is the secret of finding the 

 sitting female. This nest was made 

 of coarse dried grass scantily sur- 

 rounded by a few upright blades of 

 grass, beside some lumps of dried ma- 

 nure. There were four eggs, large, 

 handsomely spotted products, arrang- 

 ed with the small end toward the mid- 

 dle of the nest. I never found less 

 than four eggs in a full complement, 

 among dozens of nests of this Curlew 

 I have examined, and I can not agree 

 with any statements that make less 

 than four as completed sets. The last 

 week of May is the right time to find 

 full cets in the Judith Basin, and most 

 of the eggs found after the first of 

 June are likely to be too badly incu- 

 bated to make nice specimens. 



Nest No. 12. May 30. Bartramian 

 Sandpiper. — The date shows that this 

 was a holiday, and it found me out on 



an expanse of praisie hunting for 

 eggs. It was Curlew time, but inci- 

 dentally there were other desiderata 

 on the open benches. I couldn't get 

 any Curlews to manifest interest in 

 my proceedings, but at length I ran 

 across a male Bartramian Sandpiper 

 feeding in a likely looking corner of 

 a pa£ture. I began to quarter over the 

 corner, and without great loss of time 

 the female ran from a tuft of grass 

 about fifteen feet ahead of me, while 

 the male gleaned quietly about a hun- 

 dred feet from the nest site. Neither 

 of the birds made any outcry, and the 

 female soon began to feed quietly 

 from the sparse herbage. This nest 

 v/as made with no lining except a few 

 blades of grass which had been tram- 

 pled down in the tuft, the blades of 

 enclosing material being from six to 

 eight inches high. There were four 

 eggs, three of which lay with their 

 small ends together in the middle, 

 while the fourth egg was lying cross- 

 wise of the radius of the nest. 



Nest No. 13. May 30. Chestnut- 

 collared Longspur. — This same Decor- 

 ation day turned off showery in the 

 afternoon, the Curlews were contrary 

 and disappointed me, and I started 

 home out of sorts. Out on the bench 

 I was crossing, however, I made a find 

 which put me in better humor, the 

 nest of a Chestnut-colored Longspur. 

 This species is generally not repre- 

 seted numerously on the benches of 

 Judith Basin, though it could not be 

 termed rare, as it breeds sparingly. 

 I was paying little attention to the 

 birds around me, for I had decided 

 to go home without interruption, but 

 v/hen little Mrs. C. C. Longspur 

 dashed out from the base of a small 

 grass tuft which I was just about to 

 brush with my foot from pure force 

 of habit, I immediately saw that she 

 was worth looking after. She flut- 

 tered low ahead of me, quite differ- 



