THE OOLOOIST 



37 



cult to speak to each other without 

 hallooing, we went ashore and such 

 a sight I never saw before all over 

 so thick you could hardly walk with- 

 out stepping on eggs. The island 

 has no trees on it, the only vegetation 

 being a coarse grass and bindweed 

 and in this the eggs were laid, and in 

 most cases no nest being made, the 

 grass simply hollowed. How they 

 could ever tell their own nests is a 

 mystery to me and in some cases 1 

 don't think they did as there were 

 eggs in some nests that were very 

 different in shade some light and the 

 others almost brown; sets being from 

 two to four, all shapes, sizes and color, 

 some being most beautifully marked. 

 The beach were also lined with nests 

 and there was a piece of a side of 

 some old wreck that had washed up- 

 on the beach and even between the 

 ribs of this the "Terns" had built 

 their nests. The nests on the beach 

 and in the wreck were built of sea- 

 weed and other drift material. The 

 man who took me out to the colony 

 said there were more birds this season 

 than he had seen before in thirty 

 years fishing around this island. 



"The Birds of Conn." says that the 

 colony was shot out about 1882 by 

 some taxidermist but they have re- 

 gained their number again and if all 

 the young raised last year return in 

 1918 there will not possibly be room 

 for them all to nest as the island is 

 very small. I informed Mr. H. K. Job 

 of the colony and he engaged a man 

 and went out to the island and took 

 some fine moving pictures of the 

 colony. I intend to make a trip to 

 both places this coming season as 

 they are most interesting places for 

 anyone interested in birds to visit. 

 Nelson E. Wilmot, 



24 New St., • 

 West Haven, Conn. 



THE OPPORTUNITY FOR ORNI- 

 THOLOGY 

 Study At Cranberry Lake, N. Y. 

 By Carl F. Wright 

 The Conditions at Cranberry Lake 

 afford great opportunities for studying 

 birds. The Sophomore summer camp 

 opens on about the first of June and 

 closes about the first of September, 

 and consequently this period sees the 

 birds in their nesting season. Sees 

 them nest building, brooding eggs, 

 feeding their young, and even sees 

 them moulting and getting ready for 

 their migratory flight back to their 

 winter homes. 



The dense virgin timber is not an 

 easy place in which to study bird life. 

 The timber, however, around the For- 

 estry Camp has all been cut over, and 

 directly in back of the camp there is 

 an old burn which has grown up to 

 second growth, saplings, etc., and un- 

 der these conditions the woodland 

 birds are always seen at an advantage. 

 The lake is the native home of the 

 Loon or Great Northern Diver, the 

 Great Blue Heron, and also a few pair 

 of Red Breasted Mergansers make 

 their home here. Outside of a few 

 species, the so called "water birds" 

 are not common. During the past 

 summer two or three Herring Gulls 

 made their home on the lake, but ap- 

 parently they were not breeding. By 

 observation it is hard to identify the 

 sex of this species, but probably these 

 birds were immature males and it is 

 commonly known that occasionally the 

 latter do not mate during the first 

 year. 



An especial interesting feature of 

 the lake is that it affords a breeding 

 place for a colony of Great Blue 

 Herons. This Heronry is located 

 northwest of the lake near a swampy 

 flow or set back, but it is not located 

 where one would naturally expect to 

 find the birds nesting, that is, in the 



