THE OSPEEY. 



125 



"I adore that Clever Kid," writes one of our 

 most adorable readers; "he is worth $1 a year 

 all by himself." We hang our head with 

 averted eyes, striving to conceal the blush 

 which mantles the cheek of our j'outhful in- 

 nocence. "But who is he?" Well, in strict 

 confidence, we may saj- he is our office cat, 

 and she is of the feminine g-ender. Her real 

 name is Through niuch-Tribulation-ye-shall- 

 enter-the-lcingdom, but we call her Tribby for 

 short. 



Letter Box. 



A PROTEST AGAINST CANON XL. 



Neligh, Neb., March 16, 1S99. 

 Editor of The Osprev: 



I am not at all in sympathy with those who 

 ujjhold Canon XL of the A. O. U. Code. I am 

 insufficiently versed in Greek and Latin to 

 tell whether a name is correct or not, bxit I 

 am content to follow the judginent of those 

 ^^'ho do know. I write Jlyiadestes tomisendi 

 l}ecause it seems to me more nearly correct 

 than Jlyadestes townsendii of the A. O. LT. 

 Check List. I desire to follow proper usage, 

 but do not always know whom to follow 

 among conflicting authorities. I am con- 

 vinced that the A. 0. U. is wrong in a great 

 many cases, however. It would greatly please 

 me, and undoubtedly many others, to have a 

 new Check List with strictly correct naiues. 

 Kespectfully yours, 



Merritt Cary. 



SNOWY OWL I ]<i iM I I 



[Our correspondent modestly voices the 

 great and growing discontent with that canon 

 of the A. O. U. Code which seeks to force bad 

 spelling upon the ornithologists of America, 

 under the specious but futile plea of "stabil- 

 ity of nomenclature." Canon XL dictates that 

 wrong names shall be perpetuated, for no 

 other reason than that they have been wrong 

 from the start. A mote glaring absurdity 

 would be hard to find. Error can not prevail 

 over truth in the long run. Well-informed 

 and self-respecting ornithologists refuse to be 

 bound by such fooUshness, and thus Canon 

 XL defeats its own purpose. It must be ex- 

 punged fi-om the Code, and all the verbal 

 atrocities it has inflicted upon the Check List 

 must be expurg-ated. When the A. O. U. com- 

 mittee does this, and learns to spell names 

 correctly, then stability and uniformity will 

 be brought about, not before: for we shall all 

 be glad to be bound to the right instead of the 

 wrong names, and will use the former with 

 entire unanimity. We are glad to be able to 

 assure Mr. Cary and others who are interested 

 to be set right in this matter, that the new 

 (third) edition of the Cones Check List, pre- 

 pared to accompany the next edition of the 

 Ivey to North American IJirds, will set an ex- 

 ample which may be .safely followed. — Ed.] 



SNOWY OWL FROM LIFE. 



MiN^'EWAUKAN, N. D., Feb. 4, 1899. 

 ICdiior of The Osprey: 

 I enclose a photograph of a captive Snowy 

 (Jul. This bird was slightly stunned by 

 a charge of shot at long range, and 

 bought by me this winter from the 

 rancher who captured it. I could dis- 

 cover no trace of the shot. Confined in 

 a liig box cage without floor in the open 

 yard, it appeared rather more resig-ned 

 to confinement than some species, like 

 the ]?lack-bellied I'lover, Carolina Hail. 

 American ISittern and others formerly 

 occupying the same quarters. Like all 

 members of its family, its food was re- 

 j^tricted to flesh, but I never succeeded 

 in witnessing the act of eating. Mice 

 seemed to be a favorite food, fresh beef 

 was freely devoured in secret, but liver 

 was refused entirely. I thought I had 

 some evidence that it was given to eat- 

 ing snow. The mercury fell to 30 de- 

 grees below zero, but I could not dis- 

 cover that the bird noticed this, al- 

 tlio\igh one end of the cage was entirely 

 open, except for the slats nailed across^ 

 On seizing it firmly by both feet and 

 holding it outside the cage, so as to per- 

 mit free use of the wings, its lifting 

 ])ower was surprising, and I should 

 jiulge it might have easily borne away 

 a jack rabbit equal to itself in weight. 

 .Tvidging from its great size it was a fe- 

 male. I am .sorry that the bird opened 

 her mouth and dropped her wings at the 

 critical instant, but this was due to her 

 excitement and fear, while I was get- 

 ting her posed and secured properly. 

 Yours trxily, 



Eugene S. Rolfe. 



