84 



THE OOLOGISt 



PLUMBEOYS CHICKADEES ARE 

 NOT AFRAID. 



While fishing March 15, 1917, I de- 

 cided to make a scout up a little can- 

 yon near by, in search of chickadees. 

 I found a hole in a rotten tree about 

 five feet up. A chickadee fiew away 

 from the tree. I thought it was a 

 little early for a full set, so I did not 

 fool with it and went on. A few 

 minutes later I came back by and the 

 chickadee was on the nest. I could 

 not make her leave, so I tore the wood 

 away carefully. I had to take her 

 from the nest. There was no eggs. 1 

 placed the wood back as I found it 

 and tied a string around the tree to 

 hold the wood in place. This left the 

 nest in as good a shape as it was at 

 first. The next day I went up to see 

 if she had deserted the nest. She was 

 not at home but an egg was in the 

 nest showing that she had returned 

 after I had pulled her from the nest. 



Ramon Graham, 

 Ft. Worth, Texas. Taxidermist. 



TEMPERATURES AND EGGS. 



I had read so many times that the 

 Grebes did not sit on their eggs but 

 depended on the fermentation of the 

 mass of vegetation the nest is com- 

 posed of and the heat of the sun to 

 hatch the eggs. I thought I would try 

 and find out the truth, so when I went 

 to the Marsh June 4th, 1890, I took a 

 dairy thermometer with me. 



We took a boat and started out on 

 the water. The first nest found was a 

 Pied Bill Grebe with six eggs. It was 

 near a floating log with a few rushes 

 growing around the nest. It was a 

 cloudy day and the temperature of the 

 air was 77. The temperature of the 

 nest just under the eggs was 88; of 

 the water 76 and the temperature of 

 the nest was 72. If the Grebe had left 

 the nest about one minute before we 

 got to the nest about the time it would 



take us to run the ten to twenty rods, 

 the nest would be cooled off a little 

 from one hundred, the temperature 

 necessary for a good hatch. Then we 

 passed a nest of Terns with three 

 eggs. The temperature of the first 

 nest just under the eggs 84, water 78, 

 six inches deep in the nest was 74, air 

 77; no signs of heating in the nest. 

 Next nest seen was a Coots with five 

 eggs, next Coots one with three eggs, 

 one with five and one with seven. 

 Next nest was Grebes five eggs. Coots 

 seven eggs, another Grebes five eggs. 

 I was satisfied that the Grebes hatched 

 their own eggs. 



We were running along near the 

 grass when my boatman raised his 

 paddle to hit something. I stopped 

 him and looked and a Grebe was just 

 leaving her nest. She dove off the 

 nest under the water just as a turtle 

 would, scarcely making a ripple cov- 

 ering her eggs as she slid off. The 

 Grebes will sometimes come to the 

 surface when she gets out of gun shot, 

 other times no bird will be seen near 

 the nest. 



Delos Hatch. 

 Oakfield, Wis. 



SOME NESTING BIRDS OF THE 

 JUDITH BASIN, MONTANA. 



No. 3. 

 P. M. Silloway. 



Nest No. 14. June 1. Columbian 

 Sharp-tailed Grouse. This Grouse is 

 fairly common in the bottom agricul- 

 tural lands and on the adjacent culti- 

 vated benches. It does not appear to 

 resort much to the high dry prairies, 

 for there its food is more restricted; 

 it prefers the borders of the timber 

 fringing the water-courses, and the 

 patches of low shrubbery in the 

 meanders of streams and irrigating 

 ditches. Wherever there are ranches 

 with grain and meadow the Sharp- 



