36 



THE OOLOGH8T 



worked for his father at the printing 

 trade. He later organized the firm of 

 Reinecke & Zesch, job printers, and 

 became editor of the Freie Presse, of 

 which the firm of Reinecke & Zesch 

 were proprietors. 



Mr. Reinecke always took active in- 

 terest in the affairs of the city and in 

 1896 was named park commissioner. 

 He was connected with various enter- 

 prises in addition to the printing- 

 business, being a director and stock- 

 holder in the Erie Fire Insurance 

 Company, Citizens' Gas Company, and 

 was a member of the German Young 

 Men's Association, the Turn Verein, 

 and the Buffalo Saengerbund. He was 

 an enthusiastic naturalist and devoted 

 practically all of his spare time to the 

 study of birds. He published a com- 

 plete list of local Coleoptera which is 

 regarded as exceedlingly valuable. He 

 was a member of the Buffalo Society 

 of Natural Science since its organiza- 

 tion in 1861. 



In 1856 he was married to Eva En- 

 gel of Buffalo. 



Mr. Reinecke is survived by his 

 widow and two daughters, Mrs. Daniel 

 W. Schwartz and Mrs. Edward W. 

 Spitznagel and two sons, Ottomar, Jr., 

 and Eugene Reinecke. 



TWO INTERESTING COLLECTING 

 TRIPS 



On May 16th, 1917 I made a trip to 

 a large farm which is located on a 

 point of land along the shore of Long 

 Island Sound near New London, Conn. 

 On this farm the "Black Crowned 

 Night Herons" have bred for years. 

 The owner, now a man in his seven- 

 ties, informed me that they have bred 

 in this same swamp since he was a 

 boy. This past season there was a 

 very large colony breeding, wnen you 

 walked through the swamp they would 

 rise in clouds squawking as they flew 

 away, then, if you would keep still 



they would return, the females going 

 to their nests and, the males perching 

 around in the trees, then you would 

 hear a regular concert of grunting 

 sounding like a whole drove of pigs. 



The nests were thick in every 

 direction you may look some trees 

 having as many as a dozen nests in 

 them. On climbing a large beechnut 

 tree I could look into the nests in the 

 smaller trees and there were eggs in 

 some and young in all stages from 

 newly hatched to full grown. 



The ground was strewn with egg 

 shells showing that the Herons do 

 not carry them away as do other 

 birds. Heron rookerys are not very 

 sanitary as the trees were white with 

 excrement and the decaying fish all 

 around made it filthy. On this same 

 farm there are about thirty pairs of 

 Ospreys breeding every year, most of 

 them nesting in low Peprige trees not 

 over twenty-five feet high, their huge 

 nests which sometimes would fill a 

 cart, being visible for a great distance. 

 On climbing to a few I found them to 

 contain from two to four eggs each, 

 large, creamy, buff in color, most 

 handsomely spotted with brown. One 

 pair had a nest in a maple tree in the 

 front yard and the old gentleman told 

 me the nest had been occupied for 

 three years. 



There were also several pairs of 

 Crows nesting in the woods on this 

 farm. 



On the 17th of June I engaged a 

 lobster .fisherman to take me to an 

 island which is located six miles off 

 shore where a large colony of Com- 

 mon Terns nest each year and after 

 a run of about three quarters of an 

 hour we reached the island which has 

 a very rocky shore making landing 

 very difficult especially in bad 

 weather. 



The Terns rose in a swarm and the 

 noise from their chatter made it diffi- 



