THE OOLOGIST. 



he struck the ground, he threw himself up- 

 on his hack, and offered fight. While 

 standing there watching him, it occured to 

 me, that the crows were pretty quiet since 

 I discharged my gun. I turned and looked 

 for them but they were nowhere to be seen. 

 They had probably considered the climate 

 a little unhealthy in our vicinity and had 

 escaped to the woods at our right, I again 

 timed to the eagle; there he lay just as I 

 had seen many a hawk and owl do before. 

 While trying to think of some plan to carry 

 him home, my friend's dog approached to 

 near. I fancied I could see a wicked flash 

 in the eagles eyes, when out went one of 

 •his claws; this was followed by a howl of 

 pain and the dog disappeared in the bushes. 

 This was more than my friend could stand, 

 and picking up the gun, he fired at the bird 

 at six paces. On picking him up I found 

 that his head and breast had been blown to 

 pieces. Leaving him where he lay, we con- 

 tinued our hunt, getting six rabbits, and 

 returning home just in time to sit down to 

 a good warm supper. 



Grant H. Rouse, Detroit, Mich. 



Jottings from Florida. 



Feb. 24th I collected a set of two Ground 

 Dove eggs fresh; nest was situated on a 

 dead stump two feet from the ground, com- 

 posed of fine roots and grass. 



March 16th I took a little walk in the 

 neighborhood of a lake, and found three 

 Logger-head Shrike nests; each nest con- 

 tained five eggs, all fresh. The nests were 

 situated in very scrubby Oak trees, at an 

 average heigh th of eight feet; were compos- 

 ed of twig's, moss, and horse hair. The 

 Loggerhead Shrike is a very common bird 

 hare, raising two and three broods a season, 

 beginning to build early in March; it has 

 a habit of perching itself on a tree near 

 its nest and, knowing this habit, it is not 

 difficult to find their nests. The natives 

 call this bird the Butcher Bird (and with 

 some reason) for it certainly does "butcher" 

 the smaller birds. 



April 6th collected a set of four Sparrow 

 Hawk eggs, fresh ; nest was in an old Flick- 

 er's nest, in an old pine snag fifteen feet up. 



This nest was lined with moss, the only in- 

 stance I ever knew of these nests being 

 lined with anything. The eggs are gener- 

 ally laid on rotten wood in bottom of hole. 



April 6th collected a set of four Kildcer 

 eggs, fresh; were laid on the ground in a 

 slight depression in the vicinity of a pond. 



April 7th collected a set of two Florida 

 Screech Owl eggs; were fresh. Nest was 

 in an old Flicker's nest, ten feet from the 

 ground. Eggs were laid on bare bottom of 

 the cavity. 



April 8th found two sets of Boat-tailed 

 Grakle eggs, fresh ; the nests were situated 

 over water in bushes. Nests were compos- 

 ed of straw, moss and mud, and lined with 

 fine roots. This Grakle will often build 

 three or four nests and only lay in one of 

 them. Why is this? The average number 

 of eggs laid in any one nest here is three (3), 

 I have only found one or two nests contain- 

 ing four; have often found them contain- 

 ing two with incubation far advanced so the 

 set must have been complete. 



April 19th collected a set of two Florida 

 Screech Owl eggs, were fresh; nest was 

 in an old Flicker's mst twenty feet up. 



April 2'2nd found several Mocking-bird 

 eggs; nearly all were fresh. 



April 25th my chum and I went collect- 

 ing to a Heroiry five miles from home. We 

 got there all right, and immediately proceed- 

 ed to "strip " (the eggs are laid over water), 

 we waded in and collected some forty or fif- 

 ty sets of the Little Blue and Louisana spec- 

 ies, three-fourths of which were fresh. The 

 average number of eggs laid was three; 

 some contained four, and one contained 

 five. Their nests were built over water in 

 bushes, composed of sticks loosely laid to- 

 gether, making a very frail neat. In an 

 average nest, you can see eggs from below. 

 It is not a very pleasant task (if it should 

 be called such) to wade in after the eggs, as 

 there are lots of Alligators and very poison 

 snakes in the water (I came nearly stepping 

 on one, Ugh!) We started home about 

 three o'clock p. m. arrived all safe, but 

 very tired. 



May 16th collected a set . of Logger-head 

 Shrike eggs, were slightly incubated. 



