THE OOLOGIST. 



in successive years in the same 

 tree, and presumably by the same 

 birds. The tree was a large elm directly op- 

 posite of our residence, and the nests range 

 from 3 inches deep at first to 14 inches the 

 depth of the last. The first nest is com- 

 posed of wosted twigs, carpet ravelings and 

 string, and is very poorly built, in compari- 

 son with the last nest, which is entirely 

 made of the glistening fiber of the milkweed 

 firmly woven into a strong ponch larger at 

 the bottom than at the top, and lined with 

 horse hair. 



I once shot a male Baltimore Oriole dur- 

 ing the period when his mate was occupied 

 hatching her eggs. The missle used was a 

 green grape, thrown from a sling, which had 

 the effect of stunning the bird. He recover- 

 ed in a few minutes and I put him in a large 

 cage just outside the window. He tried hard 

 to get out at first, but finding that impossi- 

 ble, commenced to sing and made himself 

 generally at home. His nest was in a pear 

 tree in the yard, and the following day his 

 mate left her eggs and flew up to the case, 

 where they seemed to hold a brief consulta- 

 tion. The female then returned to the nest 

 where she continued her parental duties; 

 every morning, however, making a call on 

 her captive mate. 



I kept the male in confinement for six- 

 teen clays, feeding him on bird seed and 

 worms, which he devoured greedily, and he 

 became so tame that he would take the 

 worms out of my hand. ' 



As soon as the young were born the moth- 

 er, finding it hard work to keep her young 

 supplied with food alone, was greatly dis- 

 tressed and flew about the cage picking at 

 the wires and trying her best to liberate her 

 imprisoned mate. This was too much for 

 me and I opened the cage door and away 

 they both fiew to the pear tree. 



The cage remained where it was for the 

 remainder of the summer and every day the 

 pair would come over to my window and, 

 entering the cage fearlessly, feed on the 

 bird-seed and carry off the worms to their 

 hungry little ones in the nest; while the 

 male alwavs took his morning bath in the 



tub which was kept supplied with fresh 

 water for his benefit. 



When the young were grown they would 

 not go near the cage and the old birds never, 

 to my knowledge, returned to this locality. 

 H. T., Montclair, N. J. 



My Annual Trip to Seven 

 Mile Beach. 



On May 22nd, of this year, I decided to 

 pay a visit to my favorite collecting ground, 

 Seven Mile Beach, in search of the Fish 

 Hawk's eggs. The day in question turned 

 out to be all I had wished for. When I 

 awoke at day-break, old Sol. was just rising 

 out of the dark blue waters of the ocean 

 (as it seemed), and as he rose higher and 

 higher, he gradually assumed the shape of 

 a huge balloon, with the blue waters of the 

 ocean forming a basket. Hurriedly getting 

 everything in readiness, I started for 

 Townsends Inlet, where I took a boat for 

 Seven Mile Beach. On the way, however, 

 I stopped for my companion, Ed. Wells, 

 who was just on the point of starting out 

 in search of me. After arriving at the 

 Inlet, we w T ere soon on our collecting 

 ground. 



The first place visited was a large swamp 

 in which was situated a large heronry. We 

 had just entered the edge of the swamp, 

 when an immense flock of Green Herons, 

 frightened at our approach, took flight and 

 settled far out on a large strip of salt 

 meadows. We now commenced to search 

 for nests, but we had no trouble in finding 

 them, for nearly every bush and tree con- 

 tained one or two nests, and on some trees, 

 three nests were found. The nests con- 

 tained from three to five eggs each, the 

 usual number being four. In about one 

 hours collecting we took 67 eggs in sets, 

 and could have taken plenty more. We now 

 started for a strip of woods in which we 

 could plainly see several large bulky nests 

 which I knew to be nests of the Fish Hawk. 

 On our way there we crossed a small strip 

 of meadows, on the outer edge of which I 

 flushed a Spotted Sandpiper, and after a 



