THE OOLOGIST 



133 



of them hatched, and the third week 

 in June this pair of Blue Geese took 

 possession of the nest, after a battle 

 extending over several days. Some of 

 the Canada Goose' eggs were still in 

 the nest, addled of course. 



The Blue Goose laid four eggs and 

 I removed the old Canada Goose eggs 

 one at a time. Soon the Blue Goose 

 was sitting, with her mate ever on 

 guard close beside her. She pulled 

 old grass up to the nest and mixed it 

 with her down from her breast until 

 there was a large roll about the rim. 

 Into this she would sink up to the 

 level of her back when sitting. The 

 old bird was a very close sitter and 

 permitted as near an approach as her 

 mate would allow, which was as close 

 as ten feet at times. Whenever she 

 left the nest for feed or drink, which 

 was seldom, she carefully covered 

 them over so as to entirely conceal 

 them, and the gander always accom- 

 panied her on these trips. One by one 

 the eggs disappeared until but one was 

 left. Whether they were taken or 

 destroyed by man or beast I never 

 knew. The last egg I took from the 

 nest on July 20, 1919. It was much 

 addled and cracked open when I at- 

 tempted to blow it. I mended the 

 broken cracked part, and now have it 

 among my collection, the only au- 

 thentic egg of the Blue Goose known 

 to science. It is now after being sat 

 upon for a month, of a creamy white 

 color. Originally it was shinny white, 

 and is very closed grained, and of a 

 finer shell texture than any eggs of 

 the Geese of America so far as known. 

 It measures 3.09 x 2.00 inches. 



Other notes and illustrations of our 

 Blue Geese can be seen by referring 

 to The Oologist Vol. XXVIII, pages 

 18-20-24-82-171, Vol. XXIX page 269-382, 

 Vol. XXX page 61, Vol. XXXI pages 

 15-20-24, 



R. M Barnes. 



My First Find of Blue Grossbeaks 



On May 21, 1919 I was walking 

 along a fence about one hundred feet 

 north of my camps, I saw a bird fly 

 out of a small oak and said to myself 

 what kind of a bird was that. Ex 

 amining the tree I found a well con- 

 cealed nest about five feet up. Look- 

 in the nest I saw two white eggs and 

 a Cowbird, I waited until the bird re- 

 turned and found it to be a Blue 

 Grosbeak. On May the 26th there 

 were still two eggs and a cow bird. 

 The nest was made of rags, paper, 

 leaves, spider webs, lined with horse 

 hair and fine rootlets. 



Late in the evening of June the 8th, 

 I was sitting out in front of my boat 

 repair shop at Lake Worth, talking to 

 W. P. Mackdermitt, a taxidermist. I 

 heard a bird up in the top of a tall 

 oak. I said to Bill, "that sounds like 

 a new bird to me." She had a piece 

 of paper in her mouth so I kept a 

 close watch on hgr. She fooled around 

 for about fifteen minutes and made a 

 dart for some low weeds not far from 

 me. I made an examination and found 

 a nest nearly complete. Looking up 

 in a tree close by I observed the male 

 which was a beautiful bird, dark blue 

 with chestnut shoulders. On June the 

 10th there was the egg in the nest. 

 June 15th there were four eggs and 

 June the 17th there were still four 

 eggs. The nest was three feet up, 

 composed of the same material as the 

 other nest. I took several good pic- 

 tures with my Graflex. 



Ramon Graham, 

 Ft. Worth, Texas. 



BAGS TRUMPETER SWAN 



Pitsburg, Kan., Jan. 24.— The Pitts- 

 burg State Normal Training Museum 

 of Natural History has a rare bird in 

 the shape of a trumpeter swan, rare 

 in this northern latitude. It was 

 killed by a young man while hunting 



