176 



THE OOLOOIST 



should like to liave secured it for my 

 collection but had no gun with me. 



A. W. Henaford. 

 Los Angeles, Cal. 



Kingfisher Spying. 

 By Isaac E. Hess. 



I was greatly interested in Mr. Ed- 

 win Guy's account of Kingfisher nest 

 investigating. I have had a somewhat 

 similar experience with equally suc- 

 cessful results. With great labor I 

 had upon three occasions (one in a 

 down-pouring rain) tunnelled dog-fash- 

 ion into Kingfisher retreats, only to 

 find my labor in vain. In addition I 

 experienced the chagrin of realizing 

 homes destroyed all to no purpose. 



During a week's outing in early 

 May, with Guy Day, the Barn Owl ex- 

 pert, we observed many Kingfisher 

 tunnels upon either bank of the Salt 

 Fork creek while we lazily floated 

 along in a boat. 



Each of us had fine sets of six de- 

 posited by Mrs. "Alcyon" but with the 

 insatiate appetites of real Oologists we 

 each desired a set of seven. 



Not desiring to bother the common 

 nests of five or six, we wondered how 

 w^e might examine all Kingfisher domi- 

 ciles, with no harm to the little fisher- 

 folks, abodes, until we unearthed the 

 lucky seven. 



Mr. Day's fertile brain finally evolv- 

 ed a simple yet highly efficient 

 method. Selecting a slender twig or 

 weed growth six to eight feet long, we 

 split the ends and inserted matches. 

 Lighting the match at the entrance of 

 the tunnel, the stick was slowly 

 pushed back. The absence of drafts in 

 the tunnel allowed the match to burn 

 slowly and brightly all the way back. 

 If the tunnel was a straight one and 

 Madame Kingfisher not present, the 

 set and surroundings could be plainly 

 observed. When present the irate lit- 

 tle owners, usually snapped viciously 



at the lights and when the pole was 

 with drawn would sally forth. Then 

 the tunnel could be examined in her 

 absence. Of course a bending tortu- 

 ous tunnel could not be examined in 

 this manner but in our vicinity, sandy 

 soils along our streams with an ab- 

 sence of rock do not interfere with 

 straight excavations. 



Isaac E. Hess. 

 Philo, Illinois. 



Nesting of the Green and Blue Winged 

 Teals. 



All through May and June in 1905, 

 the writer spent the time in Central 

 Saskatchewan and mostly in the wild 

 new country about fifty miles west of 

 the charming city of Prince Albert. 



The country in the vicinity of Mista- 

 wasis, my address at that time, was 

 mostly Black Poplar "bush," with here 

 and there patches of pine and spruce 

 and almost everywhere there was 

 water in some manner either running 

 streams, cold and swift, small ponds 

 or treacherous swamps. 



And the ducks, I have often when 

 out after a mess for the table, been 

 compelled to back away from a pond I 

 had been skirting, far enough so as 

 not to blow my meal to atoms. And 

 everywhere there were teal. Green- 

 winged. The former about two for 

 every one of the latter. 



The Green-winged nested in all man- 

 ner of places, but generally quite close 

 to some pond and nearly always in the 

 bushy timber close to the edge, under- 

 neath the body of some fallen poplar, 

 being the most common nesting site. 

 The earliest date on which I collected 

 a full set of this species, was on May 

 21st and the latest fresh set on June 

 12th. The eggs ran in number from 

 eight to eleven in a set, with nine and 

 ten the general run of the sets. The 

 Blue-winged Teal nested in more open 

 situations as a rule in the low grassy 



