6 



THE OOLOGIST. 



While I was crossing this strip and 

 particularly when near the ditch my 

 attention was suddenly attracted to the 

 chirping notes of a pair of small spar- 

 rows not far away. Soon I espied them 

 restlessly flying about among the 

 grass and small bogs. Upon critical 

 scrutiny I arrived at the conclusion 

 that they were none, other than the rare 

 Leconte Sparrow and by their restless 

 actions and continuous chirping de- 

 cided that they must have a nest in 

 the immediate vicinity. Immediately 

 I commenced to search at first looking 

 only in the most likely places, but 

 finding nothing I returned and began 

 a most thorough search spending more 

 than an hour within an area six rods 

 wide and about ten rods long conti- 

 guous with the ditch, although with 

 the closest and most patiently applied 

 searching nothing in the form of a 

 nest could be found. Nearly, discour- 

 aged at such a failure I withdrew some 

 distance to a higher point for obser- 

 vation and awaited further results. 

 Almost simultaneously the loud and 

 excited chirping ceased, yet they were 

 very uneasy constantly moving about 

 either taking short flights or swiftly 

 running on the ground from bog to 

 bog, thus occasionally I would get a 

 glimpse of them or hear an almost in- 

 audiblechirp. It was exceedingly dif- 

 ficult for me to keep the location of 

 both birds for to my disadvantage the 

 sun had already disappeared and now 

 small things were rendered less dis- 

 tinct in the twilight. To keep pace 

 with the fast approaching dusk it was 

 absolutely necessary for me to move 

 nearer so that I might be within obser- 

 vable distance. This of course I caut- 

 iously did and finally on the verge of 

 darkness when nearly every thing was 

 obscure I boldly ventured forth direct- 

 ing my steps toward a spot where I 

 bad seen the birds go several times 

 but not staying long on any occasion, 

 and where one of the birds was now. 



I came so suddenly upon her that she 

 had barely time to leave the nest 

 which to my disappointment contain- 

 ed three young birds and an egg about 

 to hatch. It was now too dark to meas- 

 ure or correctly note the composition 

 of the nest, so I deferred further obser- 

 vation to a future date, and thrusting 

 a stick into the soft earth not far away 

 for a mark I decamped. Returning 

 four days later on June 2nd I found 

 four young birds well developed for 

 their age occupying the nest, which 

 I photographed, but upon developing 

 the plate a poor negative was the re- 

 sult. The nest was effectually hidden 

 in a thick growth of grass and well 

 sunken in the mossy ground, it was 

 composed entirely of fine dry grasses 

 so arranged that the finer materials 

 formed the internal lining and mea- 

 sured inside 1| inches deep and 2i 

 inches diameter. This family of 

 young birds lived a comparatively 

 short life for on the morning of the 

 succeeding day June 3d. they were 

 found dead in the nest the appearances 

 evidently indicating that they were 

 crushed beneath the foot of some 

 "critter." On the preceding day 

 June 2nd after a short tour and search 

 about the marsh I succeeded in locat- 

 ing another nest about sixty rods dis- 

 tant, containing one young bird about 

 ten days or two weeks old. The loca- 

 tion and composition of this nest were 

 identical to the one above described 

 and measured inside If inches deep by 

 2i inches in diameter. During the fol- 

 lowing two weeks I made many trips 

 to this marshy area and spent many 

 hours in fruitless search but on the 

 15th was amply rewarded for all my 

 time and exertions involved in the 

 enterprise, for after two or three hours 

 of the most patient and critical search- 

 ing I was so fortunate as to flush a 

 sitting bird from its nest which to my 

 delight contained five eggs. This 

 nest was only sixteen paces from the 



