134 



THE OOLOGIST 



incubating, I cannot say, but noticed 

 r-orticularly that in many such sets 

 the eggs were well advanced in incu- 

 bation and that it was not a case of 

 I'liling out the set. 



Although, these two species are rat- 

 ed as common, they are very interest- 

 ing, and it is very fascinating to look 

 over a large number of their eggs, to 

 note the variations. Sets may be 

 found having the very deepest ground 

 color up to an almost white, and with 

 different sized blotches and markings. 

 Most sets contain but two or three 

 eggs, larger sets of either species are 

 rare in Maine Colonies. Here there 

 are three distinct ways in which they 

 place their eggs: First, on Bluff, 

 where the landscape is rocky, the eggs 

 are placed on the bare rocks. No nest 

 is made; next on one end of Stratton, 

 which is covered with a pebbly shin- 

 gle, sometimes a slight depression is 

 made to receive the eggs. The third 

 way, is in the beach grass and wild 

 pea, that grows back from the stony 

 shingle. Here many nests are seen, 

 substantially, though loosely made of 

 dry grass and some hold together when 

 taken up. Others have just a rim of 

 grass around the eggs and resemble 

 a straw hat minus the crown. 



Terns are always much annoyed 

 when anybody walks about where their 

 eggs are. They resemble a swarm of 

 bees as they fly about over your head 

 and many dart down at you and come 

 pretty close to your head sometimes. 

 Their continuous cries gets on your 

 nerves after the novelty of the sight 

 wears away for it is a noisy repeated 

 chir-r-r-r and tear-r-r-r. After they get 

 quieted down and return to their eggs 

 you are able to identify the two spe- 

 cies apart, by their eggs alone you 

 cannot. 



By June 10th the majority of sets 

 are complete, but some of the birds 

 from different causes lay earlier and 



some later so that during the whole 

 month of June and even into July, eggs 

 may be found. 



Young Terns are peculiar speckled 

 little fellows when they first leave the 

 shell and seem able to run about in 

 a short time. They have all the agil- 

 ity of young Sandpipers in hiding 

 when in danger. 



The rest of the bird population of 

 these islands are several pairs of Red- 

 winged Blackbirds and Spotted Sand- 

 pipers with one or two pair each of 

 Song and Savanna Sparrows. 



Roscoe I. Giles. 



Spraying and Killing Birds. 



An imaginary story from some Sen- 

 timental Bird Lover has been pub- 

 lished as a fact. 



Sometime ago there appeared in var- 

 ious papers a statement from some 

 bird lover in which the poisoning of 

 birds by spraying with poisonous com- 

 pounds was declared to be "something 

 awful" and that cats were killed from 

 eating the poisoned birds. Consider- 

 able interest was created by this 

 statement, especially among fruit- 

 growers who, of all persons, should 

 be and are awake to the importance of 

 protecting birds which eat insects that 

 injure the trees or fruit and while 

 this poisoning scare would be wel- 

 comed as a truth in some localities 

 where the English Sparrows are plen- 

 tiful, it has transpired that there is ab- 

 solutely no truth in the statement. 

 One fruit-grower who sprays his own 

 trees and largely his neighbors', says 

 that he has never noticed any dead 

 birds under the trees after spraying, 

 and besides as it has been estimated 

 that a man must eat about three bar- 

 rels of apples which have been sprayed 

 with arsenate of lead, in order to make 

 himself sick, he can hardly believe 

 in the bird poisoning story. 



In California where clean cultiva- 



