182 



THE OOLOGIS1 



E. H. Short: — 



Dear Sir: — On Oct. 7th of this year 

 I found a nest of three young Gold- 

 finches nearly ready to fly. The nest 

 was in a cypress about six feet up: Is 

 not this an unusual date? 



AVAN ROSSEM. 



Ans. — It would he in the East. Let 

 us hear from other Western collec- 

 tors. 



Editor Oologist: — 



Dear Sir: — I was interested to note 

 the comparative measurements of 

 eggs of the Great Blue Heron from 

 different sections of the country, by 

 Mr. Thompson in the September Oolo- 

 gist. It seems to me that if those 

 who possess eggs of any of the wide- 

 ly distributed species would submit 

 the measurements to the Oologist for 

 publication, whenever those measure- 

 ments are unusual, that there might 

 thus be brought to light much inter- 

 esting and instructive data. 



I note in the measurements refer- 

 red to above, that the eggs from 

 Maine are much more elongated than 

 any others. I have a set of two eggs 

 of the Bald Eagle taken in Maine, 

 which are very unusual in the same 

 way, measuring: 3.20 x 2.27 and 3.04 

 x 2.21 in. If it is a general tendency 

 for eggs of a species to more elongate 

 in one section than in another, it 

 would be of interest to know the fact 

 and to search for the reason. 



B. G. WILLARD, 



Millis, Mass. 



A Morning's Egg Hunt. 



Sunday morning, June 16th, this 

 past spring was just about the right 

 time to look up the warblers and 

 smaller breeders, as they were all a 

 couple of weeks later than usual. I 

 was up at dayight and was soon hust- 

 ling up the river road for the mouth 



of a large mountain stream. Birds, 

 were singing everywhere along the 

 mountain side and among others I 

 heard several mourning warblers, but 

 did not stop, and the only nests noted 

 were several catbirds and robins. Ar- 

 riving at the turning in point, I was 

 soon walking on an old log road and 

 then I slowed up and began to look 

 for nests. The valley of this stream 

 and surrounding mountains is wild 

 land and uninhabited. In the valley 

 for about 5 miles is a heavy and al- 

 most continuous growth of rhododen- 

 dron or buck laurel. For several 

 miles the timber is heavy and is made 

 up in a great part of hemlock and 

 some pine. Many big boulders lie scat- 

 tered about and the ground is car- 

 peted with deep moss and beautiful 

 ferns. In this region and similar 

 places hereabouts when the condi- 

 tions are so Canadian, many of the 

 more northern breeders find a sum- 

 mer home and such northern mam- 

 mals as the varying hare or white 

 rabbit, porcupine, woodland jumping 

 mouse still flourish. 



If was a beautiful day, clear and 

 cool, and birds were singing every- 

 where. I started in and went slow, 

 and after the trip was ended I con- 

 cluded it was one of the best trips 

 I ever had. Going but a short dis»- 

 tance a pair of juneos' became great- 

 ly excited. The cause I soon found 

 was a nestful of five eggs under the 

 edge of the bank along the road. Very 

 soon I spotted a Magnolia warbler's 

 nest in the top of a little bunch of 

 hemlock about five feet up. It held 

 three eggs, which I left for a full set. 

 Stopping to drink from a clear, cold 

 spring, I noticed another Magnolia's 

 nest situated about the same and con- 

 taining one egg. Farther up where 

 the timber was heavy and the ground 

 damp and shady I noticed way out on 

 the edge of a long drooping ' 

 limb and directly over tlu 



