THE OOLOGIST 



207 



head of Cuckoo, and when we had 

 come within several feet of the nest, 

 we could plainly see the yellow lower 

 mandible. Then with a short and sil- 

 ent flight, she flew to cover; she utter- 

 ed no notes during our inspection of 

 the nest and its contents, nor was the 

 male seen in the vicinity. Then only 

 seven feet up I reached my hand into 

 a nest made of small sticks and lined 

 with several catkins; and drew out 

 two plate greenish blue eggs averag- 

 ing 1.2 X .90 in size. The first egg 

 hatched September 12th and the other, 

 the following day. 



Chas. S. Weiser, 



York, Penn. 



Turkey Vultures in Northern Minne- 

 sota 



I have just returned from a few 

 days fishing up in the Cass Lake coun- 

 try which is about 150 miles east of 

 here and while there I saw a bird 

 which I had never seen before and was 

 unable to recognize. 



We left Crookston early in the 

 morning and expected to land at Cass 

 Lake early in the evening as we inten- 

 ed taking it easy and occupying the 

 day just going up. 



Cass Lake is situated in what we 

 call a cut over country, there having 

 been a lot of timber there years ago, 

 but now is covered with a weed 

 growth, which will average probably 

 20 feet in height, such a paradise for 

 birds and especially birds of prey, and 

 water birds; the country is literally 

 covered with small and large lakes, 

 rivers, creeks, etc., but such a country 

 to hunt in. There are sand ridges and 

 then bogs, and believe me, its some 

 job to cross one of these swamps. 

 You may be knee deep in water or you 

 may be up to your neck, but as T said 

 before it is a perfect paradise for 

 especially birds of prey. 



On our way out we came upon a 



Golden Eagle which had evidently 

 killed a wood chuck and was feeding 

 on it, he got up just about 50 feet 

 ahead of the car as we came around a 

 sharp turn. I immediately stopped the 

 car, and flew low over the woods out 

 of sight. Just about as I was to start 

 again my wife said, "Here he comes 

 back." He flew over us again and dis- 

 appeared only to show up again in a 

 minute. I got out of the car to see 

 what made that bird so anxious for 

 this place and there found the wood 

 chuck. 



This bird is not common here but 

 this is the third one I've seen, having 

 collected one four years ago, while on 

 a duck hunt. I was sitting in the blind 

 with decoys right out, when all of a 

 sudden this enormous bird swooped 

 down within 4 or 5 feet of my decoys. 

 I blazed away and in the water went 

 Mr. Eagle. I had only broken a wing 

 and now to get him in the boat. I 

 stuck and oar out to him which he 

 caught and stuck to until I lifted him 

 in. I strangled him with my boot lace 

 and took him home to mount. He 

 measured from tip to tip 7 feet, 10 

 inches, and weighed 11 pounds, 8 

 ounces. I am positively sure that he 

 took my decoys for the real thing and 

 intended getting one of them for his 

 afternoon lunch. 



Well we got to Cass Lake without 

 any trouble and the next morning I 

 beat it across the lake where the 

 water was still and intended getting 

 a pike or two for breakfast. Just as 

 I reached shore I heard a noise and 

 there was what I thought to be another 

 eagle just raising up through the 

 small willows along the shore and 

 settled upon a dry limb a little ways 

 off. He lit in the very puich of the 

 limb, such a small perch that he had 

 to continually keep himself balanced 

 by flapping his wings. Not 100 feet 

 from where he got up were three more 



