130 



THE OOLOGIST 



3^ ^7; 



nests in each grove. They nest there 

 until a fire burnt them all out. 



In 1903 we took a hoat and started 

 out to find them again. We went 

 south six or seven miles, part of the 

 time in open water and narrow chan- 

 nels when the Herons began to fly our 

 of the grass ahead of us a few rods 

 from open water. The water was high 

 and we could push the boat through 

 the grass. We soon came to the nests. 

 They were generally made of coarse 

 grass called blue joint, a few sticks 

 in the bottom. We examined about 

 two hundred nests and they averaged 

 larger sets than usual, four, five and 

 six were fairly common; two or three 

 of seven seen. It is hard telling what 

 is an average set. They usually begin 

 setting on first egg laid and I doubt 

 if they lay every day as there was a 

 good deal of difference in the size 01 

 the young. There was generally four 

 or five young in a nest. 



I failed to get good pictures of the 

 young. When all the young were 

 hatched, the oldest would be big 

 enough to sun in the water. We esti- 

 mated the number breeding there then 

 at one thousand pair. They occupied 

 a strip of marsh forty rods wide and 

 about a mile or more long. Some of 

 the nests were so low and small that 

 the eggs laid in the water: others 

 were as large as a bushel basket and 

 a foot high. The nests were all the 

 way from three feet to two or three 

 rods apart. Once I counted eleven 

 from the boat, another time seven. In 

 one place was four nests and a ten 

 foot pole would touch all of them, but 

 it was seldom that we could see more 

 than three or four nests at one time 

 and seldom that we could see a nest 

 more than two or three rods from the 

 boat. Up to that time the Herons had 

 been increasing fast. 



Least Bitterns were holding their 

 own or gaining, but Coots and Gali- 



nules were decreasing fast, probably 

 owing to the hunters shooting' and eat- 

 ing them. 



Black Terns and Grebes were about 

 as common as ever. All the Rails ap- 

 peared to be about as common as 

 usual. Ducks very few breeding there. 



The next two or three days we had 

 very heavy rains and I tried to get to 

 the island but the water was two or 

 three feet deep over the road and it 

 was not until June 25th that I could 

 get there. I wanted to see what effect 

 the heavy rains had on the birds nest- 

 ing there. We took the boat and went 

 south through a pasture where cattle 

 were feeding in water two or three 

 feet deep and where we never went 

 before with a boat. 



First nest seen was Pied-Bill Grebe 

 with seven fresh eggs: next nest had 

 twelve fresh eggs. I had learned that 

 to tell fresh eggs was to dip them in 

 water and fresh eggs will sink. Then 

 we passed several new nests of Coots 

 and Galinules without eggs. A couple 

 of nests, probably ducks, no eggs; 

 next nest was Least Bittern, three fresh 

 eggs and a Galinule with seven fresh 

 eggs. Then we took to the open water 

 and went five or six miles to the place 

 where the Herons were nesting but 

 found only a few there. The first 

 eight nests had four and five eggs all 

 containing at least one fresh egg. 



In all we saw twenty-nine nests, all 

 on logs that had been raised by the 

 water. 



Another nest of the Least Bittern 

 was found and contained five eggs and 

 also found two nests of Terns. We 

 concluded that the high water had 

 made nearly a clean sweep of the 

 nests as all the nests examined were 

 fresh. During the trip we saw one 

 flock of young Grebes, one of young 

 Galinules and two young Terns ready 

 to fly. 



In the distance traveled that day be- 



