72 



THE OOLOGIST. 



an egg of the Least Bittern (Ardetta 

 exilis) of which I observed a pair 

 building a nest a few days before, and 

 upon arriving at the nest which was 

 located near the river in some tall 

 grass, the female was flushed and the 

 nest contained but one egg, which is 

 now in my collection. 



In the same locality a short dis- 

 tance away I came across an American 

 Coot's nest with ten spotted eggs, one 

 of which went into my collecting box, 

 the remaining ones were left in the 

 nest, as my collection consists only of 

 single eggs. 



My next find was four nests of the 

 Long-billed Marsh Wrens {Cistothorus 

 palustris) which appeared more like 

 mouse-nests than anything else I 

 could compare them with, and only 

 one of the nests contained five eggs, 

 one of which I preserved. 



I next strolled down the river bed 

 where I discovered a nest in the sand 

 bar with four spotted eggs of the Spot- 

 ted Sandpiper, the single one which I 

 preserved was slightly incubated. In 

 a bank near by I observed a Belted 

 Kingfisher {Ceryle alcyon) fly from a 

 hole, and after about one hour's dig- 

 ging I secured seven glossy white 

 eggs, and as the bird would not return 

 to its spoiled nest I took the entire set 

 of these eggs. While at this work I 

 observed the female Spotted Sandpiper 

 return to its remaining three eggs and 

 proceed incubating as if nothing had 

 happened. 



The next two nests I found were one 

 of the Yellow-breasted Chat with four 

 eggs and one nest of the Cardinal 

 Grosbeak, but as I had eggs of these 

 two species already in my collection I 

 left them undisturbed. I also found 

 the Bank Swallow nesting in the same 

 bank where the Belted Kingfisher's 

 were procured, but the nests were high 

 up on the steep face of the bank so I 

 could not procure them. Upon the 

 green grass under the welcome shade 



JAMES F. HONECKER, OOLOGIST, 



Oak Forest, Indiana. 



of a large elm tree I sat down to eat 

 my dinner, after resting some time I 

 started out again for new material. I 

 next came to an old Sycamore stub, 

 when a rap on it flushed a Red-headed 

 Woodpecker from a hole. From a set 

 of six pure white eggs one was taken. 

 On a grassy hillside I found a nest of 

 four eggs of the Killdeer, one egg 

 went along with me leaving three in 

 the nest for its owner. 



Entering the woods I discovered a 

 nest of the Cooper's Hawk having an 

 egg of this specie I paid no further 

 attention to this nest; and after walking 

 about three miles I didn't find a single 

 nest nor egg. As by this time the sun 

 was sinking low in the west, reflecting 

 its golden sunbeams on the distant 

 hilltops, I was nearing home when I 

 had the pleasure of finding a nest of 

 the Bob-white under a large stone, 

 leaning against an old stump. The 



