92 



THE OOLOGIST 



J. C. Edwards, one of the foremost 

 bird authorities of the United States, 

 a man who has devoted his life to the 

 study of birds, has been placed in 

 charge of the institution by Mr. Grider. 



The institution is to be opened 

 Saturday night and a cordial invita- 

 tion has been extended the public by 

 Mr. Grider. 



Returns From Alaska. 

 Our friend, Professor Stevens of the 

 Northwestern Normal School at Alva, . 

 Oklahoma, has but recently returned 

 from an extended Alaskan trip and 

 this is what is told of it in one of the 

 papers published in the capitol of his 

 state: 



Guthrie, Ok. — Returning home from 

 seven months spent in Alaska with 

 one of the finest zoological specimens 

 ever brought out from the Arctic re- 

 gion, Professor George W. Stevens, 

 head of the department of biology at 

 the Northwestern Oklahoma normal 

 school at Alva, is in Guthrie to dis- 

 cuss w-ith the board of normal school 

 regents the disposition of the material 

 which he has secured. 



Professor Stevens's collection in- 

 cludes groups of eight big Arctic ani- 

 mals, moose, caribou, seals, sea lions, 

 black bear, Kadiack brown bear, deer 

 and white mountain sheep. He also 

 secured a fine collection of smaller 

 animals, such as beaver, mink and ot- 

 ter, about 120 varieties of birds and 

 1,500 valuable birds' eggs, which are 

 worth on an average $1 apiece. 



Most of his hunting was done on the 

 Kenai peninsula, with the town of 

 Seward as the base of supplies, al- 

 though some of his finest specimens 

 of deer were killed in Southern Alas- 

 ka. He considers himself very fortu- 

 nate in securing the white mountain 

 sheep, which are quite rare and diffi- 

 cult to get. The mountain climbing 

 involved their hunting a hazardous ex- 

 perience, although the most exciting 



game of all to hunt, according to Pro- 

 fessor Stevens, are the Kadiack bears, 

 w^hich are of about the same variety 

 as the grizzly, only twice as large. 

 One of the animals which he killed 

 weighed 1,400 pounds and some of 

 them run as high as 1,600 pounds. He 

 gives a very graphic description of the 

 sensations experienced when trailing 

 a wounded bear through almost impen- 

 etrable underbrush, with the know- 

 ledge that at any moment the bear 

 is likely to turn and fight, hunter and 

 hunted then having their position re- 

 versed. 



With everything packed into the 

 very smallest available space. Profes- 

 sor Stevens brought back with him 

 half a carload of material, all of which 

 came through in very good shape. 

 The bulk of it probably will go to the 

 museum of the Alva school, which, 

 through his efforts, already has a fine 

 collection of Oklahoma fauna. The 

 board of regents is inclined to give 

 some of the specimens thus obtained 

 to the other normal schools, but will 

 probably require them to mount the 

 specimens and prepare them for exhi- 

 bition themselves. 



Professor Stevens is a graduate of 

 Kansas university, and received his 

 training in zoology and taxidermy un- 

 der Professor L. L. Dyche, the famous 

 Kansas scientist and hunter of big 

 game. 



BIRD NOTES. 



We wish everyone of our subscrib- 

 ers who writes to the Editor no mat- 

 ter upon what business or subject, 

 would include in his letter some item 

 of news which the writer believes 

 would be of interest to our readers, 

 or any conisderable portion thereof. 

 This we would appreciate, as it would 

 assist us in furnishing just what our 

 readers want, viz: fresh, crisp field 

 notes. 



