THE OOLOGIST 



27 



fine male European Widgeon in North 

 Bay, Princess Anne County, Va., on 

 November 26, 1917. The bird was 

 with a flock of Baldpates and was shot 

 by A. Dozier. This makes the fifth 

 specimen of this species in my collec- 

 tion. 



plumage. I have the male and the set 

 of eggs in my collection at present. 

 Dr. G. M. Burchick, 

 Milton Jet., Wis. 



A son of the well-known oologis", 

 Chas. H. Jackson, of West Chester, 

 Pa.,, is in the Aviation service of the 

 United States and located near New- 

 port News and E. E. Secchrist of San- 

 tiago has joined the Navy. 



Bachelor Birds 



During the last half of May and all 

 of June, 1915, there was a bird that 

 flew from one part of the village to 

 another all the time uttering a loud 

 cry of "Here, Here," until even those 

 who ordinarily do not notice the birds 

 had to take note, and began to make 

 inquiries as to what the bird was. It 

 was so shy that it was difficult to get 

 a good view of it, as it would five its 

 call of "Here, Here" and go to another 

 tree. I finally made out that it was 

 a male Baltimore Oriole, Icterus Gal- 

 bula, and without a mate. During 

 July he began to acquire the plumage 

 of the adult male and either because 

 silent or more probably learned the 

 usual oriole song. This was in North 

 Loup, Nebraska. This year during the 

 same months I made a similar obser- 

 vation of another bachelor oriole here 

 in Milton Junction, Wis. The song 

 was more nearly normal yet was 

 peculiar enough to enable one to fol- 

 low the wanderings of the bird about 

 the village. I suspect there would be 

 chance for similar observations if 

 there was some peculiarity to enable 

 one to identify individual birds. 



In June, 1898, I took a set of three of 

 the Orchard Oriole, Icterus spurius, 

 in southern Dane Co., Wis., where the 

 male parent was in the immature 



Alaska Eggs 

 P. B. Peabody, Blue Rapids, Kansas 



I have been absorbingly interested 

 in the data furnished by Editor Barnes 

 for the greatly-rare eggs recently re- 

 ceived from the Point Hope Region. 

 I am wondering, much, whether the 

 collector made a mistake in s&nding 

 in his notes; and so made the Pallas 

 Murre nest on the sea-beach. This 

 is contrary to all experience. Won't 

 Mr. Barnes please investigate? (These 

 eggs were laid on a shelf of rock fac- 

 ing the Arctic ocean. — Editor.) 



Mr. Barnes has also cited the un- 

 usual size of sundry Murre eggs, 

 "giant" eggs. The dimensions of these 

 are given as 2.25 by 3.37. 



Now, I have, of late years, become 

 more than interested in the dimen- 

 sions, and other variant details, of 

 birds' eggs. Among the thousands of 

 measurements taken, or reviewed, dur- 

 ing the past ten years, were those of a 

 series of Pallas Murre eggs. I find 

 that one or two, at least, exceed the 

 dimensions given by Mr. Barnes, the 

 maxima being 2.26 by 3.48. This il- 

 lustrates the great value of collabor- 

 ation, in bird study. We cannot pos- 

 sibly have enough of this; and the 

 writer humbly bespeaks more of this 

 sort of work, in connection with our 

 favored Oologist, which some of us 

 have found indispensible for our house 

 keeping, these twenty-five years, and 

 more! 



I read, with great surprise, the 

 story of the " set of Nine, Barred 

 Owl," recently cited, at some length, 

 in the pages of the Oologist. To my 

 mind, there is not the shadow of a 

 doubt that the eggs in question are, 

 as believed, those of the Hooded Mer- 

 ganser. I have personally taken two 



