bird. Finally, one late May day, while hunting for nests of Kentucky warbler, I chanced to visit a leafy flat that lay in a wooded ravine. Never a thought of the whippoorwill entered my mind, but what should flop up in front of me but this very elusive bird. And there in a little shallow depression lay two white eggs that rolled about slightly as the mother hurriediy left them. These specimens were soon carefully packed away in the collecting box, and I went happily tramping home to prepare and place them in the tray where the pin-hole specmens had been so long.

However, the eggs were much incubated and difficult to save. After hours of tedious manipulation of the tools the contents were removed and the set placed away to dry.

Several seasons later, while two chums and I were out on a wooded hill a half mile from our house, we scared a whippoorwill from its resting place on an old decaying log. The time was early April and our enthusiasm for nests and eggs was pitched to a soaring height. As the season advanced we frequently heard these birds calling from the woods nearby. One evening we walked at dusk on a country road that led along a lofty ridge to the north. A whippoorwill's notes came softly from a small quadrangular strip of timber on a low ridge to the west. We discussed the incid ent and agreed that there must be a nest of the bird in that vicinity.

Therefore, on May 20, we set forth to make an extensive search for the eggs. Much of this wood was grown up in low saplings and second growth oaks among which were strewn an abundance of weeds and may-apple stalks. Here and there lay flat stretches of leaf-covered areas. eral such places were examined with out result, but upon searching over

Sev

one of the leafy spaces that lay at the northeast corner of the tract we came very close to a darkish body which fluttered and tumbled away at our approach. And there lay a single white egg of the whippoorwill.

Three days following this discovery we came again to see what the bird had added to her housekeeping equipment. She sat close as we entered the thicket, and only when I had come within about three yards of her did she flop away from her eggs. These specimens were lightly marked with shades of reddish-brown and lavender. One had on it a dark spot which was quite conspicuous in contrast to the several lighter markings. These eggs were neatly blown and added to the little series.

May 22, 1914, I was in the country with two boys, who often accompanied me on nature-study trips, and was making a special effort to discover the nest of a pair of goldenwinged warblers which frequently sang nearby. We had reached the border of an extensive mixed woods which grew on the point of a ridge. While I beat in the weeds with a stick the boys grew tired and went up into the woods, and in hunting over the forest floor of them flushed a whippoorwill from a small open space that was well surrounded by underbrush. "Here's the kind you're looking for" yelled he, and I hurried to the place to find two creamy eggs which lay in a slight depression in the compact floor of leaves. These specimens were larger than those of the preceding clutches and were more typical of the species, being well sprinkled with shades of lavender.

Thus I collected my last set of whippoorwill's eggs.

SOME QUEER THINGS It is sometime since I have written

anything for the Osprey business! Yes, that everlasting word "business," used as it is to cover the multitude of things of this world, good, bad and indifferent, from going to see your best girl of a Sunday evening, to building a railroad or running a horse race; it is all business for some. Business is the poor excuse I plead for neglecting my hobby, and you my younger friends, one and all will find it easier as years go by, and business cares increase, to refrain from going out into the crisp air of early March to look at the Bubo's nest out of which you took the eggs last season, and you will stay at home with less restlessness of a hot June day, even though you may know the swamp over yonder is full of rare warblers' eggs, simply awaiting some one to take them. Yes, you will do all this and more with the best grace possible if you have a counting room, store or office full of people who desire to see you "on business" and more especially will this be so if the almighty dollar is in sight and the nearer this is, the less will you be inclined to go egging. Maybe then you will do as I do, watch anxiously for the coming of the Osprey and devour with eagerness every page and line, advertisements and all. Learn to regard it as I do, as an old friend. And perhaps you will then feel like catching up a pen and trying to see how some of your own experiences will look in cold type; but I digress, wander, and would be surely lost, were it not for the fact that I had written down the heading for this creed before going any further. And it now stares me in the face to remind me that I intended to tell you something of "some queer things" and not evolve a thesis on "business." You will remember it has been quite the fad in the past for those possessing large collections to publish lists of them. A very good thing by the way

as it shows who our really great collectors are, and also seems to enlighten us upon what are really the rare eggs, far more than any dealer's price list can do, and also by a comparison of a number of such publications one can gain an accurate knowledge of the number of eggs composing a normal set of any particular species. Now my private collection is not large enough to make much of a show in this sort of a parade, so I propose to say something of some of the "queer things" that have come into my possession during the formation of my small collection.

LARGE SETS

First of large sets I have 766 Bluebird 1-6 taken by myself years ago out of an apple tree some eight feet up. This is the only set of six that ever came under my observation in cur twenty years collecting, though I understand them to be quite common in some parts of the country.

593 1-5 Cardinal. Usually this bird lays but three and I regard this as a very large number to be taken in one set.

511b 1-6 Bronze Grackle. This is the only set of six ever taken out of about 100 sets.

488 3-6 1-7.. Crows are very abundant out in the river bottoms here and as many as twenty nests have been taken in a single day by me, yet the above are the only sets containing over four eggs.

402 1-8, Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. This is a most unusual set as to the number of eggs. I took it from an old willow snag about 20 feet up and all of the eggs were perfectly fresh.

144 1-17, Wood Duck. This is the largest set of Wood Ducks' eggs that

I know of. They were taken by myself from a soft maple tree and I have no doubt but that the bird would have laid more eggs if she had not been disturbed as the eggs were perfectly fresh, cold and the mother bird was not seen near the nest on the day I took her treasures.

339 1-5, Red Shouldered Hawk. A most beautiful set of five heavily marked eggs taken by myself in the river bottoms here.

333 1-6, Cooper's Hawk. I never found as many as six eggs in a Cooper Hawk's nest but this once.

311 1-4, Chachalaca. A friend of mine, Prof A. B. Burrows, who has lived where these birds were exceedingly plentiful tells me that he never saw over three eggs in a nest, but as this set was received from Mr. Thos. H. Jackson I thoroughly believe in its genuineness.

289 1-18, Quail. The largest set I have ever taken.

219 1-11, Florida Gallinule.

211 1-11, American Coot. I presume I have taken a thousand eggs of each the Coot and Gallinule and these two sets are the largest that ever came under my notice.

RUNT EGGS.

637 1-7, Prothonotory. This set is composed of five eggs one of which is a runt sure enough, being less than 1-3 as long and less than 1-3 as wide as either of the others, yet it is as perfectly a marked speciman a, one ever sees of the beautiful prothonotorys eggs.

393, Hairy Woodpecker. A runt of considerably less than 1-2 the size of any other egg in the set, collected by myself.

387, Yellow-billed Cuckoo. I have taken one egg of this species that is not as large as the smallest field sparrow's egg in my collection. Put the

two together and see how they correspond in size.

666, American Herring Gull.. Those who visited Lattin's & Co's. exhibit at the world's fair at Chicago in 1893 will remember the beautiful series of American Herring Gulls' eggs exhibited in that exhibit, all taken by Mr. Van Winkle, who has taken so very many of these eggs. In one of these sets is a runt egg just about 2-3 the size of an ordinary Ruffed Grouse's egg, perfectly formed and colored, and by the way, this set is the darkest set of the series with one exception, and this runt egg is the darkest one of the set. I now own this entire series. ODD COLORATIONS.

Prothonotary Warbler, 1-1 and Blue Bird 1-1.

ODD MIXTURES.

Robin 1-3 and Turtle Dove 1-1. Summer Yellowhead 1-1 and Wilson's Thrush 1-1.

THE COW BIRD.

595 1-1 and Hooded Warbler 1-3. 595 1-1 and Yellow Breasted Chat 1-4.

595 1-1 and Maryland Yellowthroat 1-4.

595 1-1 and Mourning Warbler 1-3. 595 1-2 and Kentucky Warbler 1-1. 595 1-1 and Louisiana Waterthrush 1-6.

595 1-1 and Prothontary Warbler

1-6.

595 1-2 and Prothonotary Warbler 1-4.

495 1-3 and Prothonotary Warbler 1-2.

495 1-1 and Warbling Vireo 1-3. 495 1-2 and Warbling Vireo 1-2. 495 1-2 and Red eyed Vireo 1-3. 495 1-1 and Indigo Bunting 1-2. 495 1-2 and Song Sparrow 1-4. 495 1-1 and Song Sparrow 1-4. 495 1-1 and Field Sparrow 1-2. 495 1-1 and Chipping Sparrow 1-3. 495 1-1 and White Crowned Sparrow 1-4.

495 1-1 and Purple Grackle 1-5.

495 1-1 and Prairie Horned Lark 1-2.

495 1-2 and Bronzed Grackle 1-4.

All of these "odd mixtures," and Cowbirds except the Hooded Warbler, Mourning Warblers and Louisiana Waterthrush, were taken by myself. The Turtle Dove's egg was found in a Robin's nest, and the Wilson's Thrush's egg in the Summer Yellow bird's nest in a small bush about two feet above the ground and a way deep in the swamps out of reach of the small boy and surely was left there by Mrs. Thrush herself.

These scientific facts are recorded

not out of a spirit of mere display or bragadoccio but for comparison with other collections as beyond question all collectors sometimes find "queer things."

R. M. Barnes.

The foregoing was prepared by the editor to be sent to the Osprey many years before the editor had any idea or notion that he would ever own and publish that magazine. It recently came to light and we thought it worth while giving our readers the benefit of it but we are now able to say that we now know that sets of 6 eggs of Blue Bird are very uncommon. We have now several sets of Pied Cardinal, many sets of 6 Bronze Grackle, Meadowlark, Orchard Oriole, Common Crow (and also 1 set of 9 of these) Copper Hawk and a number of sets of 5 of the Red Shouldered Hawk, besides a very large number of runt eggs of various species and abnormally shaped and colored eggs not shown in the above list, besides our Cowbird's eggs have extended to more than double the number of species above shown.

Editor.

We are in receipt of the announcement of the graduation of Lyle D. Miller, from the Chardon Ohio High School. He is a subscriber and a good friend of the Oologist at E. Claridon, Ohio. We join with our readers in sending him our best wishes.

KILLING OFF THEIR FRIENDS

A fruit grower in Wisconsin recently had the value of owls impressed upon him in such a way as he will never forget. It was a bitter experience for him and a good object lesson not only to orchardists, but to every one who does not recognize the usefulness and importance of their "friends in feathers."

This fruit grower had, by care and painstaking work, succeeded in bringing his apple orchard up to a point where it was capable of yielding a product valued at eight thousand dollars a year, only to have the trees girdled by mice and practically destroyed in one winter. Nailed up on the orchard's barn door was the carcass of an owl which he had shot and put up as a warning to other owls to keep at a distance. After his orchard was destroyed by mice he applied to the agricultural authorities of his state for a remedy. The expert sent to investigate cut open the stomach of the owl'e carcass nailed to the barn door, and, to the astonishment of the farmer, showed him the remains of nine field mice, which the owl had destroyed. This orchardist, by destroying owls and such like birds which prey upon mice, had made it easy for the mice to multiply and destroy his trees. The Classmate. W. A. Strong, San Jose, Cal.

A FRIEND TO BIRDS

In Colorado Springs there lives a man, Dr. W. W. Arnold, who acts as medical missionary to all the birds in that section. He has a hospital where injured birds are given skilled medical care. There is another building on his grounds which is known as the bird orphanage, and here young birds, bereft of their parents, are cared for and protected until they are large enough to take care of themselves. It is said there are always fascinating cases to be studied in both hospital and orphanage.-The Classmate. W. A. Strong, San Jose, Cal.

With this issue of the Oologist we inaugurate a slight change in the make-up of the publication which we hope will meet with the approval of our friends. It has been the intention

of the present management of the Oologist for a long time to re-arrange the make-up of the magazine but owing to various unforseen matters which have intervened we have been unable to do so and even the present arrangement is not what we ultimately intend, though it is an approach in that dircetion.

Editor.

ANT EATS YOUNG ROBINS On May 26, 1904, at Wissinoming, Pa., I found a robin's nest containing four eggs, situated on a girder under a large wood encased water main in a ravine. When I next visited the nest, in June 3, I found in it four half dead nestlings several days old. They were literally being eaten alive by large black ants. The nest was deserted, the parents undoubtedly had been shot, so I mercifully killed the young birds. They had been more or less chewed by the ants.

Richard F. Miller.

P. M. Silloway is engaged in three months field work on the birds of the Palisades Interstate Park on the Hudson River north of the city of New York for the New York State College of Forestry. They are to be congratulated on securing so competent a field

man.

AN UNUSUALLY LARGE SET Edw. R. Ford of Chicago notes the finding of a set of 7 eggs of the Meadow Lark in Worth Township, Cook County, Illinois, about the middle of May. This is an unusually large set.

Mr. L. L. Redick of Newington Center, Connecticut, has recently returned from a two year's absence in Australia and one of the first things he does on returning home is to renew his subscription to the Oologist.