136 



THE OSPREY. 



THE OSPREY. 



An Illustrated Magazine of Popular Ornithology. 



Piiblishea Monthly, except in July and August. 



By the 



OSPREY PUBLISHING COMPANY. 



ELLIOTT COUES, Ealtor. 



WALTER ADAMS JOHNSON. Associate Editor. 



LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES, Art Editor. 



Contrihutions of a relevant nature are respectfully soli- 

 cited, and should be addressed to Dr. CouEs. 1721) N Street 

 N. W.. Washington. D. C. 



Suhsoription : In the United States. Canada and Mexico, 

 One Dollar a year, in advance. Single Copies. Ten Cents. 



Foreign .Subscription: One Dollar and Twenty-hve Cents. 

 Postage paid to all countries in the Postal Union. 

 Advertising rates sent on request. 



Entered as seooad-class matter, by the The Osprey 

 Publishing Company at the Washington, D. C. Post Office. 



Vol. III. 



M-AY, 1890. 



No. H. 



Editorial Eyrie. 



We are a.sked by several contributors whether 

 Thk OSPREY prefers English or Latin names of 

 birds. We have no preference; contributors will 

 use either, or both, at their plea.sure. In the 

 present confused and incessantly shifting no- 

 menclature of the A. O. II.. the vernacular name 

 of a bird is often more precise, and therefore 

 more useful, as well as better known, than the 

 technical term. It is idle to hiok for stability in 

 scientific names till the A. O. V. committee 

 ceases to wilfully mangle so many of them. 

 The idiosyncrasy of the editor of the . Iiii- forces 

 the contributors to that magazine to observe 

 certain pig-iron rules of mispelling, and thus 

 become accomplices in the wrong-doing sanc- 

 tioned by such dubious •'authority." ThK 

 OSPKKV, whatever its own sins of omission or 

 commission, is of course free from this folly. 

 Its contributors will use whatever names they 

 please for birds; and we will see that the tech- 

 nical terms are as correctly spelled as is possible 

 in the present state of nomenclature. We have 

 lately taken the pains to prepare a list of wrong 

 names which occur in the A. O. U. Check-list, 

 and are habitually used in the ^iik, in order that 

 contributors to the OspkKY may avoid them; 

 and this we will print on the tirst convenient oc- 

 casion. 



We learn from the New York papers of a re- 

 cent session of one of the Audubon ian Societies, 

 presided over by the cherubic editor of Bird- 

 Lore, presumably assisted by his seraphic staff 

 of sub-editors, and attended mostly by uncon- 

 verted or incorrigible women wearing feathers 

 in their hats. The treasurer showed a balance 

 of fill, which was not enough, and Mr. Chap- 



man appealed for more. The Rev. Henry Van 

 Uyke sent a letter, in which he is said to have 

 said: 



"The sight of an aigrette fills me with a feeling 

 of indignation and pity, and the skin of a dead 

 song bird stuck on the hat of a tuneless woman 

 makes me hate the barbarism which lingers in 

 our so-called civilization." 



Now if the Rev. Van Dyke will ask Dr. J. A. 

 Allen or Mr. F. M. Chapman to show him how 

 many dead song birds are stuck in the drawers 

 of the American Museum of Natural History, he 

 will find so many thousand as perhaps to make 

 him hate the barbarism which lingers in our 

 so-called science. What difference does it make 

 to a bird that has been killed whether its skin is 

 on a hat or in a drawer? 



What an amount of tommy-rot there is about 

 this whole business! It would not last a week 

 if the people who affect this fad could be cured 

 of the craze of publicity. 



Some of the advices which reach us regarding 

 professional bird-protectionists confirm our sus- 

 picion that there is a good deal of hysteria and 

 netoriety-itch in their midst. The itch is catch- 

 ing', like St. Vitus' dance; some of these new 

 women need to be inoculated with sterilized 

 Ivmph. taken fresh from the town pump-handle. 

 We attended a lecture delivered before one of 

 the Audubon societies. The lecturer discoui'sed 

 eloquently upon ornithological heroes who have 

 gone to their reward, where the operaglasses 

 cease from troubling", and the kodak is at rest. 

 All these women looked bored, but they got 

 furious because the lecturer did ni>t fall prostrate 

 with g'rief when they crowded around him to tell 

 him how iiKiiiy of their cooks were down with 

 the grippe. 



We wish we could discover why women who 

 g'o to bird lectures are possessed with the single 

 idea of letting" the lecturer know how much they 

 know about birds. The instant the speaker 

 stops they make a wild rush for the platform, 

 and all begin at once to tell him that chippies 

 nested on the porch, or swallows in the barn. 

 Then they bring out impossible feathers to be 

 identified, first saying that they are perfectly 

 sure they know what the feathers are. Then 

 the little boys are pushed forward by their ad- 

 miring mammas, to bashfully confide to the 

 lecturer that they once saw a big blue crane or 

 somethings. About this time they want the 

 windows and doors open or shut, and the lights 

 turned on or oft", before they can begin to tell 

 the lecturer how to run an Audubon society. It 

 is a curious phaze of human nature of the femi- 

 nine variety. Why woinen who already know 

 it all should g"0 to lectures is something- we leave 

 to wiser heads than ours to discover. 



