36 



THE OOLOGIST 





tees above referred to. This is partly 4 

 because of a lack of time, and also 

 because we desire this catalog to be 

 entirely free from any taint of per- 

 sonal supervision. It is well known 

 that we purchase considerable num- 

 bers of eggs and hence might be 

 biased, also that we favor an actual 

 cash price, not a ficticious one that 

 will be cut in half every time a speci- 

 man is sold, and one not high enough 

 to encourage collecting by irrespon- 

 sible persons as a commercial enter-f 1 

 prise? Not so many years ago we had |!j 

 offered to us three hundred eggs off 

 the Robin, Bluebird, Wood Thrush, ' 

 Chipping Sparrow, Catbird and Brown 

 Thrush, that had been taken in one 

 year by a boy "to sell," because he 

 had found or got in some way a "Price 

 List of North American Birds Eggs," 

 in which these specimens were priced, 

 when the reader knows that there 

 never was a cash market for them at 

 above . a cent or so each. 



Now let us all put our shoulder to 

 the wheel, and give and take and 

 live, and let live, and compromise, and 

 get out a real "AMERICAN OOLO- 

 GISTS CATALOG OF NORTH AMER- 

 ICON BIRDS EGGS. 



The Editor. 



Summer Tanager's Nest. 



I have seen and collected a large 

 number of nests of this species of 

 Tanager, and in ten cases out of ten, 

 they invariably (here in this locality) 

 build their frail nest out about half 

 way of a Post Oak limb on the aver- 

 age of eight feet from the ground, and 

 in all cases over a public road or path. 



While out in the woods on May 29th, 

 1916, I was strolling along a quiet 

 little country road running through a 

 pine belt, and stopped to fill up my 

 old corn pipe, when all of a sudden I 

 saw a male Summer Tanager fussing 

 at me as though he had a nest around 



somewhere close to where I was 

 standing. Well, my first thought was 

 to find a Post Oak tree just over the 

 road, then I would find the nest. But 

 as I said before I was traveling 

 through nothing but pine trees, and I 

 knew good and well there was not an 

 oak tree any where around this place, 

 so I was puzzled as to where to start 

 to looking for it, as I never found one 

 in a pine tree, and so I never lost any 

 time in looking in these trees. I 

 knew very well there was a nest some 

 where around, and I sat down in the 

 shade and followed the male bird's 

 actions. It was not very long before he 

 flew down to the lowest limb on a 

 good size pine tree. The. place where 

 he lit looked dark as though a nest 

 was there, so I proceeded to this 

 limb and there I found a pretty, little 

 frail nest. The female flew off of it, 



and and there I could see through the 

 bottom a set of four eggs. Well, if 

 there was ever a surprised person it 

 was me, for I never in all my fifteen 

 years of travel found one of these 

 nests in any other tree except an oak 

 tree. It's very unusual. 



Earl E. Moffat, 

 Marshall, Texas. 



To Take Inaccessable Nests 

 The following is in my mind, a very 

 simple and perfect way of taking 

 nests with eggs, which are placed far 

 out of reach on branch at any height. 

 I always carry in my collecting basket 

 a piece of stiff wire, (telephone) 24 

 inches long, sharpened at both ends, 

 fold it over so as to form a two 

 pronged fork, bind this to my dead 

 stick of required length. Tie this to 

 the back of your belt, when climbing 

 tree. With this my nest can be collect- 

 ed in perfect shape. Last season I 

 took an Olive Sided Flycatcher, over 

 100 feet up and impossible to be taken 

 in any other way. 



Walter Burton, 

 Victoria, B. C. 



