THE OOLOCIIST 



179 



K. B. MATHES 



G. A. Abbott, now at Port Allegany, 

 Pennsylvania, writes us the sad news, 

 concerning the death of Mr. K. B. 

 Mathes, well known to the Bird Fra- 

 ternity and many years a staunch 

 supporter of The Oologist. 



"I write to tell you about the sud- 

 den and unexpected passing away of 

 K. B. Mathes. Two weeks ago today 

 I was a guest at his home in Batavia, 

 N. Y., and enjoyed his hospitality very 

 much. A few weeks ago he visited 

 me in Port Allegany and we have 

 been very much interested in each 

 other's collections. Last Thursday, 

 Mr. Mathes, wjiile waiting to be 

 served at a dining room table in 

 Olean, N. Y., 27 miles from here, was, 

 a victim pf a paralytic stroke. He 

 was rushed to- the Higgins Memorial' 

 Hospital and died Saturday. He has 

 two sons in college, one daughter at 

 home, and the other daughter was the 

 librarian at the Dayton Ohio Public 

 Library. Mr. Mathes was one of the 

 most active men that I ever met. In 

 addition to, owning a business that in- 

 volved the handling of thousands of 

 seashells, he made articles for aquar- 

 iums and souvenir novelties; he also 

 manufactured machinery and prepara- 

 tions of his own invention. He tra- 

 velled nailes over ledges and rocky 

 river beds yith hammer and stone 

 chisel collecting geological specimens. 

 His method of preparing and mount- 

 ing butterflies and insects was the 

 most artistic and practical that I 

 ever saw. He had beautiful cabinets 

 of his own make and had a wonderful 

 collection of paintings from the mas- 

 ter artists and was just recovering 

 from the financial setback he experi- 

 enced during the World War. He 

 showed me a beautiful piece of prop- 

 erty which he had purchased and his 

 plans, had he lived to carry them in- 

 to effect, would have involved the 



erection of a residence on the site 

 with several fire proof rooms devoted 

 entirely to his own museum. He was 

 a man in the prime of life and ap- 

 parently in good health." 



G. A. Abbott. 



THE WOODCOCK IN MISSOURI 



Either the Woodcock are increas- 

 ing very much or I am a little more 

 than usually lucky this summer. My 

 father has lived in this immediate 

 vicinity for fifty-four years. He re- 

 members seeing an Ivory-billed Wood- 

 pecker within a short distance from 

 where our home now is. He hunted 

 Passenger Pigeons and Wild Turkeys 

 all over the timberlands that are now 

 the best of Marionville apple district, 

 wihich is admittedly the leading apple 

 township in the state. But in all that 

 time he saw but one or two Wood- 

 cock. 



For some five years I have heard 

 of Woodcock being seen in our coun- 

 ty. Chums of mine told of hitting 

 one with a rock, but failed to bring 

 me any sign of the bird to identify. 

 Finally I saw many of them along the 

 shores of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. 

 On October 19th, 1922, I was at work 

 with a gang of Missouri Ag. College 

 boys west of Columbia, Missouri. We 

 were getting ready for our annual 

 Barnwarmin', at which the only dec- 

 oration is corn fodder and frost 

 colored brush. Having a class I left 

 the gang and cut across the woodlot, 

 following a small woodsy stream. I 

 flushed two finely colored woodcock 

 along the stream. They were my first 

 in the state. 



This spring was very wet here, and 

 as our land is not well drained it 

 stood in water for many days. Being 

 a bird-bander, and having some traps 

 set, I went out one eve to look thcni 

 over, and as I came along the chicken- 



