THE OOLOGIST 



97 



to hatch. All the eggs were fresh 

 when collected and the runts were 

 without yolks. 



May 23, 1915, collected a set of five 

 slightly incubated eggs of the Dotted 

 Canyon Wren from a ledge of a small 

 cave in the face of a shale cliff. The 

 nest was well made of small sticks, 

 .spider webs, feathers, hair and fine 

 grasses. 



May 23, 1915, collected a set of four 

 half incubated eggs of the white- 

 throated Swift, from a crack in a shale 

 cliff thirty feet from the top and about 

 the same from the bottom. The nest 

 was situated about a foot back in the 

 crack and was cemented to both sides 

 of the crack, and was composed of 

 feathers and plant down and fine 

 grasses. The nest was fairly alive 

 with some kind of vermin, presumab- 

 ly bedbugs; but after exposing to the 

 sunlight for a short time they all left. 

 It took half an hour by the watch to 

 dig in so I could reach the nest and 

 then the crevice was so narrow I could 

 just get my hand in edgeways and pick 

 up the eggs with the tips of my fing- 

 ers and from the nest they were trans- 

 ferred to my mouth and then I climb- 

 ed up the rope hand over hand, with 

 slight assistance from the foothold in 

 the cliff. A number of the birds were 

 seen but this was the only accessable 

 nesting place. 



.Tune 11, 1915, collected two sets of 

 two eggs of the Xantus Murrelet and 

 a single egg, incubation advanced, of 

 the Black Oystercatcher from Cat 

 Rock Anacapa Island, Ventura Co., 

 California. The Murrelets were col- 

 lected from natural crevices in the 

 rock and both nests were occupied by 

 one of the birds, sex not determined, 

 and they were removed by hand from 

 the nest. One set was advanced in 

 incubation and the other was just be- 

 gun. A large colony of California 

 Brown Pelicans were noted on the 



same date, nesting on the eastern end 

 of the island. There must have been 

 at least a thousand pairs of birds on 

 the island and the nests contained 

 young nearly full grown and from that 

 on down to nests still in course of con- 

 struction. 



Sidney B. Peyton. 

 Lespee, Calif. 



The June Oologist. 



As is known to most of our sub- 

 scribers it has been the practice to 

 issue the June number of this maga- 

 zine, devoted to the family of Warb- 

 lers. Up to date, though we have 

 carefully conserved all our Wrabler 

 copy, we are sorry to say that there 

 is not one-half enough to get out a 

 creditable issue. Will you let it go 

 by default for want of copy as was 

 done last year? — Editor. 



Becoming Acquainted With the 

 Marsh Hawk. 



The 26th of July, 1914, approaching 

 a little wooded swamp north of Hud- 

 son Falls, New York, seven Marsh 

 Hawks, which kept close together, 

 fiew outand for a moment or two cir- 

 cled near me and then disappeared 

 over the hilltop. That day was put 

 down as a red-letter one for me. 



The 25th of June, 1915, in the same 

 little wooded swamp was discovered 

 in the open swale of Carex riparia, by 

 the red-raspberry bushes; the Marsh 

 Hawk's nest with four "cottony" fat 

 young and one egg. By the nest lay 

 a dead Song Sparrow, which was 

 taken along a few steps down the 

 creek ; but on my return I left the dead 

 bird, thinking there might be one 

 more song-bird to live. The Mother 

 flying from the nest first attracted my 

 attention to it: and later on my return 

 she flew off again; but the male bird 

 was scarcely in evidence. The nest 

 was hardly more than bare clay eartli 



