UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES AFIELD 113 



quoted in its entirety. Mr. C. F. Pfluger, Secretary 

 of the Association for the Importation of Song- 

 birds into Oregon, makes the following report: 



In the month of May, 1889, the society imported from 

 Clausthal, in Germany, under a contract with a German 

 bird-dealer, the following birds in pairs of males and females, 

 viz.: ten pairs of blackheaded nightingales, eight pairs of 

 gray song thrushes, fifteen pairs of black song thrushes, 

 twenty-two pairs of skylarks, four pairs of singing quail, 

 twenty pairs of black starlings, nineteen bullfinches, three of 

 which were females and sixteen males (the rest of the females 

 had died on the way), forty pairs of chaffinches, thirty -five 

 pairs of linnets, forty pairs of ziskins (green finches), twenty 

 pairs of cross-beaks, one pair of real nightingales (the rest 

 had died on the way) , and several pairs of red-breasted Eng- 

 lish robins, the European wren species, forest finches, yellow- 

 hammers, green finches. 



When these birds arrived here, each species was put into a 

 large wooden cage six feet high, six feet long, and four feet 

 deep, with wire-net front, with plenty of water and their 

 favourite food, thus giving them a good opportunity to rest 

 and exercise their wings before they were turned loose. 

 All these birds, with their cages, were placed on exhibition 

 for four days to the public. Thousands of people went to 

 see them, and the society realized about five hundred dollars 

 by this show, which went toward paying for the expense 

 of bringing them here. At the close of the exhibition the 

 birds were turned loose under direction of Frank Dekum, 

 president of the society, in the suburbs of Portland and in 

 other counties here. 



The larks were let loose outside of the city near clover 

 meadows. 



The birds have done well ever since they were let loose; 



