THE OS PREY. 



87 



THE OSPREY. 



All Illustrateil Magaziae of Pojiuhir Ornitholugv. 



Published Monthly, except in July ;mil Ausjust, 



By the 



OSPREY PUBLISHING COMPANY. 



ELLIOTT COUES and THEODOKE GILL, Editors. 



W.\LTER ADAMS JOHNSON, Associate Editor. 



LOUIS AGASSIZ FUEKTES. Art Editor. 



Contributions of a relevant nature are respectfully soli- 

 cited, and should be addressed to Dr. CouES. 172ii N Street 

 N. W., Washington. D. C. 



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Copyright, 1899, by the The Osprey Publishing Company. 

 Entered as seco:ad-class matter at the Washington, D. 

 C Post Office. 



Vol. III. 



FEBRUARY. 1899. 



No. 0. 



Editorial Eyrie. 



We have pleasure mixed with pain in calliiij,'- 

 special attention to the remarkable article- by 

 our di.sting^iii.shed collaborator. Dr. Gill, who ap- 

 peals in this month's "Letter Box" with a prop- 

 osition for the new great work on the Life His- 

 tory of North American Birds. Dr. Gill is per- 

 fectly rig^ht, as usual; anything he has to say on 

 such a topic is worth close and careful atten- 

 tion. It is perfectly true, as he contends, that 

 the families of Oscines as they now stand in 

 the American Ornitholog^ists' Union Check- 

 List are ,so far fictitious and worthle.ss that they 

 all require to be deg^raded from such taxonomic 

 rank. We have known that for 25 years. 

 Whether that result can be effected is another 

 question, concerning which we are not as j-et 

 prepared to speak That Dr. Gill has thrown a 

 bomb-shell into the ornithological camp cannot 

 be doubted; and we should like to know how 

 every reader of Thk Osprky feels about it. 



Waiving the important matter of such a radi- 

 cal departure from our established classification, 

 the biographical work proposed by Dr. Gill is 

 perfectly feasible. We have the brains, and the 

 money too; all things are possible to two men — 

 the one who knows how, and the one who pays. 

 We do not yet venture to announce or commit 

 ourselves to such an enterprise, much as we 

 should like to see it begun in our next number, 

 and make our subscribers a present of an Os- 

 PREV Supplement every month, containing an 

 instalment of the splendid History proposed. 



But we must first hear from them. We wish 

 every one who reads this number of The Os- 

 PKEY would write to us about it, and tell us how 

 the proposition strikes him. Does he like it? 

 Does he want it? Will he stand by it, and pos- 

 sibly be able to collaborate in such an undertak- 

 ing? When we shall have heard from a suffi- 

 cient number of active practical ornithologists 

 we shall have something further to propose, if 

 the answers to this call are satisfactory. 



It takes all sorts of ornithologists to bio- 

 graphize birds, but there are two typical species 

 of the genus, who respective!}- represent what 

 may be called shot-gun versus opera-glass orni- 

 thology. 



One of these species writes as follows: "On 

 the morning of Feb. 1st I discovered a Hawk's 

 nest. I had on my warm overcoat, which I gave 

 to a friend to hold, and I climbed the tree. I 

 found 2 eggs, which I unfortunately swallowed, 

 but I succeeded in shooting both the old birds." 



The other one of these species favors us with the 

 following, in her happiest vein: "On May 1st, 

 while walking along a beautiful country road, I 

 found the nest of a tiny Sparrow. The dear 

 fiuffy babies were all in it, and Mama Sparrow 

 sat by with food in her bill. All the bright long 

 summer days I watched these feathered darlings, 

 and when my happy holiday was over left them 

 with keen regret." 



Some say these differences are due to age and 

 .sex; but we think the characters are of specific 

 value. No intergradation is observed, though 

 the habitat is the same: Eastern N. Am., resid- 

 ent, breeding- throughout in suitable sitMations, 

 especially in the vicinity of large publishing 

 houses. 



Perhaps some other species than either of 

 these is required to answer Dr. Gill's purpose. 



If any of our readers would like to know how 

 many species of birds there are, we can give 

 them the information on the very high authority 

 of Dr. P. L. Sclater, Secretary of the Zoologi- 

 cal Society of London. In an article in Nature 

 of Dec. IS, 1898, Dr. Sclater gives a total of 

 11,614 species, of 2,2.55 genera and 124 families. 



Parable of the Clever Kid and his Aged Sire. 



"What's that you're reading, dadj" asked the 

 Clever Kid, who was blowing a set of eggs of 

 Halia-eliis Icucoccphalus he had just taken near 

 Washington, D. C. 



"My .son," replied the Aged Ornithologist, 

 who had one foot in the grave and the other 

 almost there, "I am perusing Sprachregeln fiir 

 die Bildung und Betonung Zoologischer und 

 Botanischer Namen von Prof. P. Kretchmer." 



