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61 5 



POPULAR ot. SCIENTIFIC ORNITHOLOGY. \ 



By A. G. Kingston. 



As a sequel to my note on page 44 the following correspondence 

 in succeeding issues of The Auk is worth reproducing : 



Mr. \Vm. Brewster, writing in the October number, says : 



" In an article which appeared in the July number of The Auk I 

 " described at some length a peculiar process of regurgitation employed 

 " by the Flicker in feeding its young, believing and indeed remarking 

 " at the time that the habit was unknown or at least unrecorded. It 

 " seems, however, that it had been previously observed by Mrs. Olive 

 " Thorne Miller, who published an account of it in 1890 in the Atlantic 

 " Monthly, the article being afterwards (in 1892) republished in a col- 

 " lection of essays entitled ' Little Brothers of the Air.' 



" It is a pity that wi iters like Mrs. Miller gifted with rare powers 

 " of observation and blessed with abundant opportunities for exercising 

 " them cannot be induced to record at least the more important of 

 " their discoveries in some accredited scientific journal, instead of 

 " scattering them broadcast over the pages of popular magazines or 

 '' newspapers, or ambushing them in books with titles such as that just 

 " quoted." 

 And Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller, in the January number, replies : 



" Mr. Brewster's gentle admonition in The Auk of October last 

 " seems to call for an explanation of my position. The reasons I turn 

 " more readily to a literary than to a scientific channel of expression 

 " are several, not to speak of the fact that I am naturally of literary 

 " rather than scientific proclivities. There is first my great desire to 

 " bring into the lives of others the delights to be found in the study of 

 " nature, which necessitates the using of an unscientific publication and 

 " a title that shall attract, even though it may, in a measure, ambush 

 " my subject. 



" Again, never having studied scientific ornithology, and having no 

 " time at present, if I had the wish to do so, and moreover, having an 

 " intense love of live birds, and an almost Buddhistic horror of having 

 " them killed, I must admit of feeling the least bit out of my element 



