THE OOLOGIST. <Xb{«i 



137 



25 feet from the nest, and in coming 

 and going to the nest, a regular path 

 can be seen by close observers, which 

 also makes it easy to find them. 



In this locality, we generally find 

 full complements of eggs from the 

 middle of May to the first week in 

 June. The picture was taken June 

 3, 1906. 



EDWARD REINECKE. 



[We have never seen a very good 

 word for the color of the egg of the 

 American Bittern. Personally, we 

 prefer the compound Greenish-drab, 

 as nearest to the unfaded color of the 

 fresh egg. They seem very careless 

 as to date of breeding. Nests are of- 

 ten found with fresh sets up to July 

 10th.— Ed.] 



Chesterfield County, Va. 



On the 31st of last May, I took a 

 trip down the James River, six miles 

 below Richmond. Several years' ex- 

 perience had taught me that this lo- 

 cality, although not very thickly pop- 

 ulated, was the best place in this vi- 

 cinity to look for eggs. 



I rode on the electric railway as 

 far as possible, and got off within a 

 mile and a half of the river. On walk- 

 ing towards the marsh, I passed along 

 a solitary road through a young pine 

 woods, and before I had begun my 

 search, my eyes fell upon a nest sus- 

 pended in between several dead weed- 

 stalks, eight inches from the ground, 

 under a small pine bush. After ascer- 

 taining the nest contained four eggs, 

 I quietly awaited the birds, and just 

 as I suspected, the peculiar note of 

 the Acadian Flycatcher was soon 

 heard in a nearby pine. 



Upon blowing the eggs I found two 

 of them perfectly fresh, while the 

 other two were nearly incubated; but 

 after some careful work, I blew the 

 entire set without injury. This is 

 one of the peculiarities of this species, 



— to lay again after the first set is 

 half over, and the average number is 

 two, often three, but this te the first 

 set I have ever collected or seen con- 

 taining four. The nest was also one 

 of the best constructed and most ar- 

 tistic I have ever seen. 



A little further on I noticed some 

 old tin cans had been dumped among 

 some briar bushes overhanging a 

 stream, and in an old rain-spout 

 joint, which had been battered in at 

 one end, and lay horizontally on top 

 of a briar bush, I saw some moss and 

 leaves extending from the open end. 

 As I reached for it, a Carolina Wren 

 flew off, and I discovered it contained 

 four fresh eggs, the nest being lined 

 with moss, feathers and horse-hair. 

 I had just a few moments before tak- 

 en a similar set from a decayed 

 stump two feet from the ground, con- 

 taining five fresh eggs, though not 

 as large or as well marked as the set 

 of four. I found five nests of the 

 Yellow-breasted Chat in all stages of 

 incubation, besides several other com- 

 moner varieties, but did not collect 

 anything more until I got to the river. 



In the cat-tails along the marshes, 

 I counted no less than 25 eggs of the 

 Redwing, but did not take any ex- 

 cept a well-marked set of 5. Most 

 of the nests contained three, many 

 four, but this was the only set I dis- 

 covered containing five eggs. 



While bulking for these nests I 

 came across a beautifully marked set 

 of 5 eggs of the Swamp Sparrow in 

 the same clump of cat-tails contain- 

 ing 2 Redwing's nests. After a little 

 careful searching, I discovered two 

 other Swamp Sparrow's nests con- 

 raining four eggs each. These eggs 

 were somewhat larger and handsomer 

 than the first set, and were all with- 

 in a few feet of each other. 



A week later I visited the same lo- 

 cality again and found another set of 



