108 



THE OOLOQIST 



for the fun and practise of it. We 

 never got back a third time to exam- 

 ine the nests , 



I might say that tliese nests were 

 all above water and about two and 

 one-half feet to three and one-half 

 feet from the water, and two-thirds 

 of the way to the top of the reeds and 

 grass on which they were hung. 



As we progressed about the slough 

 we found several yellow-headed Black- 

 birds' nests. They almost always 

 choose a clump of cattails to build in, 

 and weave their nests out of broad 

 dry cat tail leaves in true basket 

 weaver's style. They are closer to the 

 water, being about a foot above on 

 the average, and their nests are lined 

 with coarse grasses. We found a 

 couple which were woven in a clump 

 of bull rushes and a clump of grass 

 where they did not stand too thick. 

 They appear to like the more open 

 part of the slough. Some were woven 

 all of grass, but one could tell a yel- 

 low-headed Blackbird's nest from that 

 of his neighbor, the Red-v/ing, because 

 he uses very coarse grass and makes 

 a thick nest. It is also somewhat 

 larger in the opening. They build iu 

 colonies and rarely if ever alone. Only 

 one of these nests had eggs in, and 

 this one had a full clutch of five pale 

 bluish green eggs heavily specked, 

 and evenly too, with not dark brown 

 specks, with a spatter or two, if any 

 on the big end, of black. 



We next stumbled onto an American 

 Coot's nest. We did not flush the 

 bird. Neither did we see anything of 

 her, and at the time of finding, we 

 knew not what kind of a nest we had 

 found. There were seven rather 

 large pale brown eggs in it, rather 

 well along in incubation, with very 

 dark brown, almost black, fine spots 

 all over them. Our egg book soon 

 proved what kind of a nest we had 

 found. The nest was a mat of rushes 



about eighteen inches across with the 

 edges built somewhat higher than the 

 rest of the nest. It was made entirely 

 of old bullrushes and lined with the 

 same, which were flattened out con- 

 siderably, with short bits of dead 

 grass between. 



After leaving this slough we re- 

 turned to our auto and dinner, stop- 

 ping carefully at our flags for Bob-0- 

 links and Sparrows but we were un- 

 successful in finding any. After 

 lunch we journeyed northward five 

 miles, bound for Stony Lake. Not a 

 lake at all, but a large slough on the 

 prairie, and one a person might easily 

 drive within two blocks of and not 

 know there was a slough there at all. 

 On our way, we saw a pair of Sand- 

 hill Cranes and had a good look at 

 the pair with the glasses. We got out 

 of the car and were within two blocks 

 of them before they fiew. They seem- 

 ed quite tame, but our search for a 

 nest revealed nothing. Upon Consult- 

 ing our book we learned that they 

 nest preferably on a clump of ground 

 surrounded by boggy wet land. As 

 these flew in the direction of Stony 

 Lake, we had hopes, but were not for- 

 tunate enough to flnd their home. 



We began a detour of Stony as we 

 had "Marsh Wren Slough" as we 

 rightfully named the other. There 

 were very few Marsh Wrens in evi- 

 dence and still less Yellowheads; but 

 the noise and screeching of the Black 

 Terns was "something fierce" to put 

 it in the vernacular of the day. We 

 little wondered that other birds would 

 come here to stay. We searched in 

 vain for their nests which are usually 

 built on floating bunches of rushes, 

 etc. The terns at times would strike 

 us, so fierce were they in their attack. 

 At such a time we would stop and 

 look the surrounding territory over 

 with greatest care. After several 

 such stops we discovered close by 



