THE OOLOGIST. 



123 



they look so much like the ground around 

 them. I ran ncross several sets of Bobo- 

 links, one of which had seven eggs in it, all 

 of them smaller than the average. I 

 reached a wooded island in the marsh and 

 soOn found two sets of five each, of the 

 Red-headed Woodpecker, and one set of six 

 Downy Woodpeckers. As I was walking 

 along I saw a Black-billed Cuckoo's nest 

 against the trunk of a tree about ten feet 

 up. It contained 3 eggs. The bird though 

 generally very shy, did not fly away, but sat 

 on the tree with her wings spread out and 

 her mouth open, till I left. As I was re- 

 turning through the woods, I saw a Barred 

 Owl flying over head and pretty soon I saw 

 a large nest in an oak tree about 50 feet 

 up. Just as I reached the tree, a large bird 

 flew off, which as I only got a glimpse, I 

 thought was an owl. It did not take me 

 long to get up there, but when I looked 

 over the nest it contained no owl's eggs, but 

 4 Broad-winged Hawk's eggs. I now start- 

 ed for home and on the way found a set of 

 4 Field Sparrows. I thought I was a very 

 lucky collector that day. 



D. C. , Pewaukee, Wis. 



The Great Auk. 



The Great Auk, a bird now su pposed o 

 be extinct, was the Penguin of the North 

 Atlantic. It had a squatty goose-shaped 

 body and .was from 28 to 30 inches long on 

 an average. It had wings however, that 

 were only between 5 and 6 inches long, and 

 it was therefore incapable of flight. Its legs 

 were further backward than those of any 

 other bird, and this mad* walking difficult 

 and compelled them when on land, to 

 maintain an upright position. When dis- 

 turbed it waddled away about as fast as a 

 man could walk, taking very short steps, 

 but taking them rapidly. It fed on fiish 

 crustacean and other marine animals which 

 it pursued under water and for which they 

 could dive a great depth. It could swim as 

 rapidly as some of the most lumbering 

 birds can fly. 



Although on account of its fishy food it 



was somewhat oily when in good condition, 

 it was so much esteemed by the sailors, that 

 its numbers diminished continuously from 

 the time the banks of Newfoundland began 

 to be much frequented, so that by the be- 

 gining of the nineteenth century it was no 

 longer hunted for food. So few were to be 

 had, they were not worth the time required 

 to take them. However, in the year 1807, 

 a British privateer varied its occupations of 

 pursuing French vessels and impressing 

 Yankee sailors, by going to the islands off 

 Greenland for a supply of fresh Auk meat. 

 Great numbers were killed, many being left 

 dead because the ship had all she could 

 use. In 1810 the people of the Faroe 

 Islands, being threatened by starvation on 

 account of the failure in the fisheries, visit- 

 ed Iceland and about completed the destruc- 

 tion begun by the privateer. That the Auk 

 never reccovered these blows was due to the 

 fact that the Auk laid but one egg a year. 

 It made no nest, but deposited the egg on 

 the bare rock. It was an astonishingly 

 large egg, averaging nearly 5x3 inches in 

 length and diameter, and shaped like a 

 California pear. Being small at one end, 

 it would, when the wind moved it, simply 

 roll in the are of a very small circle. It 

 was of a creamy-white color, irregularly 

 marked with brown and black patches, and 

 is one of the rarest of birds' eggs. 



J. L., Chicago, 111. 



Cuckoo Nests. 



June 6, I discovered a nest of the Black 

 billed Cuckoo, which contained four eggs 

 and one large light colored egg of the Yellow 

 billed Cuckoo, with incubation from fresh to 

 far advanced. The nest was a mere plat- 

 form of sticks lined with a few pieces of 

 grass and leaves placed in a small clump of 

 thorn bushes, about six feet high. 



June 9, I was fortunate enough to find a 

 nest of the Yellow billed Cuckoo, with four 

 eggs, two eggs were nearly fre«h, while the 

 other two were somewhat advanced. 



A, B. E., Weymouth, Ohio. 



