128 



THE OOLOGIST 3^ ('7) . \^^'^ 



took fifteen minutes work with the 

 hammer and chisel to get into it bill 

 it was empty. 



We saw birds going into several 

 other crevices and tried to get to some 

 of them, but they were inaccessible. 

 These cliffs are all soft shale forma- 

 tion and very dangerous to work on. 

 One never knows when a chunk will 

 fall on his head. 



It might be iteresting to add that 

 the birds nest in the same crevices 

 year after year. We have taken eggs 

 from these same crevices three dif- 

 ferent years. The nests are made 

 from hte same material, fine grass, 

 stems and plant down, lined with 

 feathers and all cemented together 

 with saliva. 



Lawrence Peyton. 



Sespe, Calif. 



Odd Notes 



A Gallinule was brought to me late- 

 ly to be mounted which met its death 

 by fiying through a skylight window 

 and fell dead in the hall below. 



While on a hunting trip in Sullivan 

 County, New York, last fall, a farmer's 

 son related how he had caught nine of 

 those big Red-tailed Hawks. He spoke 

 of it as though they were so much 

 vermin. ^^^ 



I seems that most of the farmers 

 won't listen to any good words for a 

 hawk, I should think that magazines 

 and papers devoted to farming and 

 agriculture would do more to make 

 the usefulness of these birds known. 



M. J. Hofmam 



"Seeing Things" 



In re-reading the March number I 

 am reminded by IMr. Hawley's notes 

 on "seeing things" of some I have seen 

 in the long ago. I never saw a set of 

 six Robin's eggs, but I have seen sev- 

 eral of five and one set decidedly 

 spotted. I have a set of five white 

 Blue-bird eggs as pure a white as any 



Woodpecker. I watched the nest 

 while the bird laid, then as she left 

 on my approach, I looked in and saw 

 the new egg; this on three of the five 

 eggs, so I know what they are. In 

 1867 I took a set of Mocking bird eggs 

 in Litchfield County. Conn,, the only 

 mockers I ever saw there. 



Last year I got a set of Herring 

 Gull eggs, one was very long; about 

 normal length but only about the di- 

 ameter of an Artie Tern egg. One 

 was about the size of an Artie Tern 

 Egg. both marked about normal, but 

 the other egg, normal in size had 

 practically no marking. This set Is 

 now owned by R. C. Martin, Jr. of 

 Albermarle. La. I also have a Razor- 

 billed Auk egg only about one third 

 normal size. 



I recall one thing of interest now. 

 In 1867 I secured from a friend in 

 Pennsylvania, six sets of Passenger 

 Pigeons eggs. All were one-half. The 

 price had been ten cents an egg, but 

 he wrote me "in future I shall have 

 to have fifty cents an egg as they are 

 becoming quite rare." I never got 

 more of them. I know where some of 

 these went a bit later and I am trying 

 to trace out a set or two. I used to 

 have a Flicker egg shaped like an 

 hour-glass or two small eggs joined by 

 a neck of one-fourth inch diameter. 

 I blew it. both ends out of one small 

 hole. 



I quite agree agree with R. Graham. 

 Fort Worth, Texas, on cleaning eggs; 

 be careful on heavily spotted eggs or 

 the heavier surface spots will wash 

 off, or be much fainter. I never tried 

 the gasoline treatment but believe it 

 would work fine. I do wish every col- 

 lecter would use only common lead 

 pencil to mark eggs. I have declined 

 many otherwise very desirable eggs 

 just because marked with ink. It 

 kills all beauty in an egg to me. 



F. M. Garryl, 

 Maplewood, N. J. 



