Michigan Ornithological Club 75 



I saw a Loon (Urinator imber) swimming within three hundred yards 

 of the shore and am satisfied from its actions it either had eggs on shore or 

 was about to lay. I saw no American Mergansers on the island and the 

 lighthouse keeper, Mr. McDonnell, who has kept the lighthouse for thirty 

 years, assured me they did not nest on the island. The Red-breasted Mer- 

 ganser (M. serrator) nests on the island regularly. I saw a pair on the 

 shore and they probably had eggs laid or were about to nest. 



The island is heavily wooded, has a small lake on it and snakes are very 

 plentiful. It has an abundance of hollow trees and two years ago a pair of 

 Wood Duck (Aix spoiisa) nested and brought out their young. 



I slept one night in the lighthouse and the Spotted Sandpipers were 

 very noisy all the night. The assistant keeper told me they were as noisy 

 during all hours of the night as they were in the day and he thought more 

 so some nights. I walked around the island several times, a distance of 

 several miles, and estimated that at least two hundred pairs of Sandpipers 

 were nesting. I climbed many of the hollow trees, but found no ducks 

 nesting in any of them. 



The eggs of the Piping Plover resemble very clcsely a set of Belting 

 Piping Plover in my collection. The color is a little more creamy and the 

 spots a little more pronounced ; they are also a trifle larger. 



The keeper of the lighthouse assured me that they had nested a great 

 many years on the point where I found my set. Another trip to the island 

 two weeks later failed to bring any new finds. 



Battle Creek, Michigan. 



BREEDING OF THE GRASSHOPPER SPARROW IN ST. CLAIR 



COUNTY. 



In his "List of the Land Birds of Southeastern Michigan" (page 38) 

 Mr. Swales records a set of eggs of the Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus 

 savemnarum passerimis) collected in Wayne County by Mr. J. Claire Wood. 

 I wish to add another to the list of this bird which is gradually growing 

 more abundant in this part of the state. 



On the sixth of July, 1896, while passing through a recently mowed hay 

 field, a few miles in back of St. Clair, Mich., one of these birds flushed from 

 almost under my feet. The nest well concealed by a small tussock of grass, 

 was placed in a slight depression in the ground and contained four slightly 

 incubated eggs. They show no resemblance to the eggs of other sparrows 

 in my cabinet, having a white ground-color, glossy and spotted with pale 

 reddish-brown chiefly at the larger end. 



Mr. Alex. W. Blain, Jr., tells me that while on a week's trip through 

 Oakland County this spring, he heard the peculiar drawn-out song of the 

 Grasshopper Sparrow at many places while passing through the country in a 

 light wagon. 



I should like to hear from members of the club in other parts of the 

 state as regards the present and former abundance of this most interesting 

 bird. Frederick C. Hubel. 



Detroit, Mich. 



