April 1888.J 



AKD OOLOGIST. 



61 



V: 



<; .1; 





The Audubon Monument. 



The New York Academy of Sciences, acting 

 in cooperation witli otliei- scientific associations 

 of New York and tlie Auieiican Oruitliol- 

 ogists' Union, proposes to erect a monument to 

 John James Audubon, whose remains rest in 



Trinity Church Cemetery, New Y^ork City. A 

 design substantantially as represented in the 

 accompanying engraving, lias been selected. 

 The ornamentation, however, will all be 

 clianged to represent animals and plants, with 

 which .\udubon was familial', selected for the 

 most part from the plates in his niagnilicent 

 books. The estimated cost of this monument is 

 about 810,000, which the committees of the co- 

 operating societies wi.sh to raise by a general 

 subscription, hoping, indeed, that all American 

 naturalists of whatever branch of study, shall 

 be represented. Thus, a large number of small 

 subscriptions is more desired than a limited 

 number of large contributions, and rather than 

 planning to raise the whole sum necessary in 

 New York City, it is wished that the enterprise 

 take a more national character. .Subscriptions 

 from 25 cents to §100.00 have been received. 

 Contributions should be sent to Dr. N. L. Brit- 

 ton, Treasurer, Columbia College, New York 

 City, by whom they will be promptly ac- 

 knowledged, and the names of the donors will 

 be permanently recorded in the published 

 Transactions of the Academy of Sciences. 



Nesting of the Tufted Titmouse. 



BY R. B. MCLAUGHLIN, STATESVILLE, N. C. 



Though the Tutted Titmouse (Lophoplianns 

 bicolor)^ is quiet in late autumn and earlj' win- 

 ter, I have heard him singing as blithely in the 

 month of December as though the time of his 

 honpyuioon were at hand. 



Apparently much amity subsits betw'een the 

 Tufted Tit and his sociable little kinsman, our 

 Tomtit (Parus carolinensis). In fall and winter 

 these two species may often be seen feeding to- 

 gether, and from the perfect harmony and lisp- 

 ing chatter, one would infer that either has an 

 insight into the nature and lingo ot his fellow. 



The Tufted Titmouse may be called an abun- 

 dant resident with us, and, at nesting time, one 

 can stroll out in the eaily moi-ning and hear 

 perhaps a score or more of them singing within 

 their respective beats. Peiliaps there is no 

 other bird which breeds so abundantly in the 

 South Atlantic States, whose eggs are such de- 

 siderata, and this is owing to the fact that its 

 nest is somewhat difficult to find, and several 

 reasons may be assigned why such is the case. 



The bird builds in a natural cavity of a tree, 

 hence the newly cut hole, with chips scattered 

 on the ground beneath, which point like treacli- 

 erous sign-boards to the home of the woodpeck- 

 er, are here absent ; and, in short, there is not 



