THE OOLOGIST. 



stick from the nest about 5 feet long 

 and about an inch thick with a crook 

 at one end and with that I reached 

 over as far as I could and pulled them 

 to the edge of nest when I gently took 

 them in out of the wet, packing them 

 carefully in hunting coat pocket with 

 plenty of Spanish moss to keep them 

 breaking in my descent, before start- 

 ing down my partner Minnie says 

 stand out and let me get your picture 

 standing on nest, and when coming 

 from the swamp in water two feet deep 

 and saw grass above my head she took 

 another fine view of me holding one 

 egg up in each hand. Well I began 

 to see it was evidently high time I got 

 after the rest of the nests I had plan- 

 ned to visit a year ago, and also to find 

 more. My son had come to spend 

 the holidays and he and I had always 

 for several years past hunted together. 

 We concluded to visit a nest we took a 

 pair of young Eagles from the year be- 

 fore. We started one bright morning 

 early; Minnie with us of course; she 

 by the way took the pictures, all of 

 which; some nine or ten are very fine 

 she also did the rifle shooting, when 

 necessary; being a fine "amazonian" 

 shot. We found our nest, and a beauty 

 it was in a large pine tree some 60 feet 

 high, the picture is shown herewith 

 with my boy about half way up. 

 Walter Raine is the possessor of the 

 fine set of eggs. I find as I get to 

 writing there is much to say and space 

 I fear already used up but the most 

 interesting finds come later and which 

 will be given in another article or so 

 with photo, of nest with Eagle perched 

 nearly and with collector climbing 

 to nest, also of nest containing an 

 unusual set of 3 eggs. 



Yours truely, 

 J. J. Ryman, 

 Palm Beach, Florida. 



Michigan Randoms. 



A set of four eggs of the Red-should- 

 ered Hawk on April 1, 1904, in Royal 

 Oak Tp., Oakland Co., beats my pre- 

 vious record by four days. April 15 to 

 20 is the best time to look for sets of 

 this Hawk here. My latest record is 

 two fresh eggs on May 18, 1902, in Van 

 Buren Tp., Wayne Co. 



Made the acquaintance of a pair of 

 Bald Eagles in Monguagon Tp., 

 Wayne Co., on March 13, 1901. Nest 

 in fork of large white oak limb and 

 just ninety-five feet four inches above 

 the ground. Tree eighteen feet around 

 the base and main crotch seventy-five 

 feet up. Nest six and one-half feet 

 in total exterior depth. It contained 

 three eggs incubated about five days. 



Visited a colony of Common Tern on 

 June 14, 1903. This was on Middle 

 Sister Island, Lake Erie. Total num- 

 ber of eggs on Island were 273-1, 248-2, 

 297-3, 38-4. 10-5—1166 sets or 2462 eggs. 

 One of the sets of four was undoubted- 

 ly the product of a single bird, but the 

 remaining sets of that number and 

 and those of five could be readily 

 separated into two sets per nest, thus 

 increasing the number of breeding 

 pairs to 1213. Three Crows and a 

 Cooper's Hawk left the Island soon 

 after our arrival. Numerous little 

 heaps of egg shells scattered through- 

 out the woods and a number of partly 

 eaten Tern tells the story. 



Was much interested in the question 

 of set marks in January number. The 

 following system has been adopted by 

 a number of collectors and is a good 

 one as it imparts an idea of the breed- 

 ing abundance of the species. My last 

 set of redstart for 1903 is marked 143-4. 

 This indicates a set of 4 and the 143rd 

 ever found by me. The first set of 

 1904 will be marked 144 and so on. I 

 also add the season set mark to large 

 eggs. The last set of Red-shouldered 

 Hawk for 1903 is marked 624-7, being 



