86 



THE OOLOGIST 



TROUPE D. PERRY 



With this issue we present a half- 

 tone photo of our old friend Troupe 

 D. Perry, of Savannah, Georgia. Few 

 Ornithologists in the United States 

 are better known to the general run 

 of bird students. For a generation 

 Mr. Perry has been a student of the 

 birds of his locality and a collector 

 on a large scale. Rare indeed it is 

 to find any collections of oological 

 specimens within the borders of the 

 United States, of any considerable 

 size, that does not contain numerous 

 specimens with datas in Mr. Perry's 

 well known handwriting behind them. 

 Many of the larger collections in Eu- 

 rope likewise contain numerous ex- 

 amples of his industry and prepara- 

 tion. He is noted among the oolo- 

 gists of the country for the accuracy 

 of his statements and extreme care 

 with which he prepares everything 

 taken by him. 



Wonld that there were more of 

 this kind abroad in the land. 



D. B. BURROWS. 



Professor Burrows, a well known 

 bird student of Lacon. Illinois has just 

 finished a year's superintendency of 

 the Evant, Texas schools, being his 

 second year there, and goes next year 

 to San Diego, Texas, to take charge 

 of the schools of that city. He is to 

 be congratulated upon his promotion. 



A card from him says, "I have done 

 a little collecting, and have taken 

 Plumbeous Chickadee, plumbeous 

 Gnatcatcher. and Audubon's Oriole, 

 among others." He will be home in 

 a few days and Ye editor will without 

 doubt have the privilege of inspect- 

 ing these rare specimens. 



Professor Burrows has probably as 

 complete a collection of Texas speci- 

 mens personally taken as any person 

 living, he having taught in that state 



nearly all of the time since 1892, and 

 in widely separated localities, giving 

 him an unusual opportunity to extend 

 his acquaintance among the different 

 species of that vaana. 



» ♦ » 



THE RUFFED GROUSE. 



(Bonasa umbellus) 

 A. O. U. No. 300. 



This well known game bird is found 

 throughout Eastern North America 

 and is subject to few^ variations. It 

 is not migratory and usually breeds 

 wherever it is found. One of the first 

 birds that the boys wandering through 

 the woods become acquainted with, is 

 the Ruffed Grouse. The bird forces 

 itself upon the attention of the young- 

 ster either by its drumming, a pecu- 

 liar noise that at once attracts the 

 attention of the young mind, or startles 

 Young America half out of his wits 

 as it rises at his feet from the leaves 

 and brush with a whirr and roar of 

 its wings, truly appalling to the boy 

 mind. 



Its favorite haunts are the edge of 

 the weeds, abjurring usually the deep 

 secluded densely wooded tracks. The 

 nest is merely a depression scratched 

 in the ground, lined with a few leaves, 

 grass, stems and weeds, and is sit- 

 uated at the foot of a small shrub 

 or at the base of a large stump or 

 tree, sometimes by the side of a log 

 and occasionally under brush or bush- 

 es; almost invariably where the 

 ground is more or less covered with 

 fallen last year's leaves, with which 

 the protective coloration of the bird 

 match up almost to perfection. 



The eggs, numbering from eight 

 to fourteen, are of an ovate, slight- 

 ly pointed at one end, shape, of creamy 

 color and sparsely spotted with 

 brownish rusty or reddish spots, scat- 

 tered sparingly over the shell, and us- 

 ually showing but faintly. The bird 

 is noted as a close sitter, and will 



