u 



THE OOLOCtIST. 



■ 1 would liki' to ask if he is positive tliat 

 tbe bird uameil does uot nest iu lowiil' 

 Coues ill his "Key to N. A. B."' gives this 

 bird from the suutheru states, up the Miss- 

 issiT)pi Valle\' to the Missouri regions, W. 

 to Arkausas aud the ludiau Territory ; re- 

 reiitly Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa etc. 



I (;au but indorse the advice given to youug 

 collectors, and contributors, yet I think he 

 is a little too severe iu his judgment of 

 them. He shoiild remember that we were 

 all youug ouce, aud that discretiou and 

 accui'acy ouly come with hard study and 

 years of experience. I know there are art- 

 icles written and chculated that contain a 

 great deal of untruth, but I cuu not believe 

 that the writers mean to prevaricate. I 

 think that if the older and more experienced 

 oruithologiSiS Avould take hold with us, and 

 give us a few articles now and then that it 

 would help in a great measure to throw 

 light on some of the obscure poiuts wherein 

 s>nie few of us have erred. 

 Very truly yours, 



L. O. Uart, Litchticld, Minn. 



It seems to me that '•iS{!olo2)as" himself 

 made a misstatemeut iu the Jan. Ooldgist, 

 when he said that an egg of the I>ald 

 Eagle was one-fourth the cubical 

 dimeusious of a Goose Egg. According to 

 Davie ti^e dimensions of an egg of the Bald 

 Eagle is 3 in . by 2 in. : now acc<.n'diug to 

 '•Scolopax's" stateineut would not his goose 

 eggs be rather large? 



W. E. Pratt Lake Fore-t, Ills 



A Record than cannot be Beaten. 



I noticed iu the January ()oL)GTst thai 

 a Horned Lark had been r>^corded by the 

 e btor, Jan. 3. 



This record I can eclipse, as I Wius much 

 surprised aud pleased to record a Horned 

 Lark on the morning of January 1st. I 

 have also seen, this mouth (Jan.), a Tree 

 Sparrow and a Northern Shrike. 



I think ths Horned Lirk must be resident 



here, as I have observed it during every 



mon h of the ■y'^'ii' e.Kcept December, aud 



have found two nests, both in April. 1888. 



Neit. F. Fosson. Medina: N. Y. 



Albino Eggs of Bluebird. 



In looking over the Ooloiust for the 

 past few years, I notice albino "eggs" of 

 dift'erent s])ecies of l)irds occasionally spoken 

 of, aud thiidving a mite from me on this 

 subject Would not come amiss, I give the 

 ft)llowiug bit of u y exjjerieuce: 



I have a set of pure wht." eggs of the 

 Bluebird, taken from a small box naded to 

 the side of a ciu'u-crib, Mny (kh. 188G, near 

 Frankfort, Kau. T!ie eg,s, live iu number, 

 are of the average size .tnd shape; the nest 

 was like others 1 have seen, aud the birds 

 which I saw at a distance of only a few 

 feet, were exuctly like others of the same 

 species, with the exception that the female 

 had lest all of her tail feathers, jirobably 

 the work of old Tabby. 



This same pair (.which I knew' by the 

 " tail mark " ot the female) conii>leted a set 

 of four blue eggs in about a niontli from the 

 time 1 took the white set, aud in the latter 

 l>art of July they again layed and brought 

 forth youug. This time three blue eggs. 



From these few observations I feel pos- 

 itive that " albino eggs'" are only freaks, a-uil 

 that t)ne bird is as apt to lay them as 

 anoiher, aiul the ouly thing that strikes me 

 as being peculiar, is this; that a Bluebird 

 either laj's an entirely white or an entirely 

 blue set, whereas, other birds, when they 

 ffo lay an '• albino, "it is only one or two 

 while the rest of the set are of the normal 

 color. 



This will .uiswer W. J. S., iu l>ec. OoJ.o- 

 (UST, at le;ist as far as I am able 



D. B. E.. Beattie, Kau. 



■88. THE OOLOGIST, '88, 



We have a few complete m1> of the 

 OoLOGisT for IHS'8 left, nuboun.l. I'rice 

 50 cents. Order (|uick if you want a set. 

 Addre«-. The OOIiOGIST. Albion,N .Y. 



