148 



THE OOLOGIST 



would pull up the material into the 

 desired place, thus weaving it to- 

 gether. Frequently in reaching down 

 on the outside she would stand almost 

 head down, with tail elevated nearly 

 perpendicular, shaping the nest to her 

 form and adjusting the materials on 

 the outside to proper curve and 

 height. Often in her work the build- 

 er would snuggle down low to see 

 how the nest fit her form, then rise 

 and reach over the brim to pull it 

 into shape or to tuck in a fragment 

 more satisfactorily, thus shaping and 

 altering and fitting. As described, the 

 general method seemed to be to catch 

 the material low on the outside, pull it 

 up and over the brim and tuck it in 

 tightly on the inside. Strange t\» say, 

 while the nest was constructed with 

 care and energy, it was never used. 

 Later in the season I collected the 

 nest. The tree was a flowering dog- 

 wood under the shelter of a larger 

 hickory. The nest was made of soft 

 grayish bark fibers, downy particles of 

 plant material, small feather frag- 

 ments, brownish bark shreds and 

 horsehair, with a lining of fine brown 

 grasses. 



From Egypt 



A letter from R. B. Overington who 

 is well known to the readers of The 

 Oologist, dated at Alexandria, Egypt, 

 June 15th has this bird information. 



"The Black Heron breeds in Cairo 

 and the villages in the vicinity, pick- 

 ing out most any tall tree to place its 

 ungainly looking litter of sticks which 

 much resemble that of the Osprey 

 only on a smaller scale. They are 

 very plentiful. Several weeks ago 

 while walking along the Nile I was 

 much interested to notice a seemingly 

 organized body of Egrets systematical- 

 ly carrying small twigs to build their 

 nests with from several trees. After 

 watching them awhile craving surely 



did come to stick around long enough 

 until I at last got one clutch. If the 

 people around here knew the birds 

 laid eggs I should be very much sur- 

 prised to find it out. There is only 

 one taxidermist in Cairo. The birds 

 he has stuffed are like the ones I 

 threw away after my first months ex- 

 perimental work. The museum is hard- 

 ly any better, so after making the 

 rounds I saw only several birds which 

 were fixed up in cloth and bandages 

 and mumified by early Egyptians." 



From, Kansas 



On May 21, 1919, Guy Love of Ober- 

 lin, Kan., and I collected a set of seven 

 Downy Woodpecker eggs. Mr. Love 

 said that he had never seen a nest so 

 large and it is, I believe, quite unusual 

 for this bird. 



I also found a set of nine Crow eggs 

 but unfortunately one of them was 

 broken by the Crow in leaving the 

 nest and the other eight were too 

 badly incubated to save. 



To one who has lived in Kansas all 

 his life the number of Violet Geese 

 Swallows here is amazing. They are 

 as common as English Sparrows are 

 in the East and are certainly much 

 better citizens. In addition to their 

 natural nesting sites they build in 

 crevices around buildings as English 

 Sparrows do in the East. However, 

 there are a few Sparrows here and 

 they will probably succeed the Swal- 

 lows here as did the Martins in the 

 East. 



Bill Griffee. 



Hawk and Oppossum 

 Last spring Jake Zeitlin was out af- 

 ter Hawks. He spied a nest in top 

 of a large elm. He was anxious for a 

 set so up the tree he quickly went, 

 and to his surprise he found an opos- 

 sum sound asleep instead of a set of 

 eggs. 



Ramon Graham. 



