94 



THE OOLOGIST 



we left it. By that time it was grow- 

 ing dark as we had started late and 

 the first convenient place we camped; 

 made a big roaring fire, cooked the 

 Black Mallard Duck we were fortu- 

 nate enough to get on our way down, 

 had a nice hot cup of coffee and it 

 did taste so good. Then turned over 

 the canoe and after getting as dry as 

 we could, the water having pretty well 

 soaked us, turned in. 



Next day we were up bright and 

 early. It was blowing hard, but the 

 rougher it was the better we liked it, 

 just so it was running the right way. 

 We wanted to make good time and get 

 on the collecting ground. It was 

 pretty rough, about five feet swells 

 and a little white cap on the top of 

 each wave. I saw Pete look around 

 at me to see if I thought it was too 

 rough and with shore about half a 

 mile away. Then he soon forgot all 

 about the weather and got to kidding 

 me about last year near Pt. Lookout 

 when Mrs. Osprey made me take my 

 hat off to her. It certainly wasn't 

 anything to laugh at as I had been 

 about sixty feet up in an old dead 

 pine, just about to reach over and 

 take a beautiful set of three eggs 

 when the bird swooped down from be- 

 hind, catching my hat, nearly knock- 

 ing me out of the tree and only drop- 

 ping my hat after it found I had col- 

 lected the set and it hadn't the right 

 party. We were going along like this 

 when the first thing I knew Pete had 

 gotten a nice wetting from a little 

 white cap. About two gallons came 

 in on Pete so we decided that we had 

 better watch out for Ospreys after 

 that. In the middle of the afternoon 

 we took out first set of three well 

 marked eggs where there were sev- 

 eral nests; sort of a colony and that's 

 the way they seem to breed on the 

 bay. Little colonies here and there, 

 sometimes you find a place where 



there are as many as twenty in a half 

 mile or better than that. Then you 

 may go twenty miles and only find one 

 single pair. From my observation, I 

 have noticed that the old birds have 

 their clutch of three eggs about four 

 days to a week ahead of the others 

 although this may not always be so. 

 Mr. E. J. Court of Washington told me 

 he has taken one set of five eggs but 

 I have never taken but four and they 

 seem to be very scarce. 



Well, to make a long story short, 

 we paddled down to Crestfield through 

 a canal that they had recently opened, 

 across a big body of water and near- 

 ly to Cape Charles. Had fairly good 

 collecting all along, taking a few sets 

 of Kildeer; incubation being very well 

 advanced, but I saved them. Then 

 back to Crestfield and started to cross 

 the bay there that night. Got about 

 half way across and struck a small 

 lighthouse that stands out by a small 

 island. Mr. Sterling made us feel at 

 home and next day we amused our- 

 selves playing cards, tanging for oys- 

 ters and incidentally visited several 

 Osprey nests on the islands. I must 

 say that I have found the people on 

 the Chesapeake Bay the most hospital 

 people that I have ever met anywhere 

 as a whole, as they don't seem to be 

 able to do enough for you. 



May 2nd, found us collecting on the 

 greater Yucomica, having crossed that 

 morning. Here I had my troubles col- 

 lecting one set. It was up in an old 

 dead tree about fifty feet up and I 

 knew if I tackled that tree it would 

 go over with me. How to work it, I 

 couldn't think for a while, but I de- 

 cided to climb up a little pine about 

 fifteen feet away, which I did. I could 

 just look into the nest and there were 

 four beauties. That made it worse 

 than ever because I just couldn't 

 figure how I was going to get them. 

 Finally I remembered an old fisher- 



