24 



THE OSPREY. 



THE OSPREY. 



An Illustrated Magazine of Popular Ornithology 

 Published Monthly except in July and August 



EDITED BV 



WALTER ADAMS JOHNSON 



ASSOCIATED WITH 



Dk. ELLIOTT COUES 



Subscription: In the United States, Canada and Mexico, One 

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



Foreign Subscription; One Dollar and Twenty-five Cents. 

 Postage paid to all countries in the Postal Union. 



British agent: Frank A. Arnold, Mershain, Surrey, England. 

 Advertising rates sent on request. 



Official Organ Cooper Ornithological Club of the Pacific Coast. 



Notes and News of a relevant nature, and original contribu- 

 tions are respectfully solicited, and should be addressed to 

 the editor at the office of publication. 



Copyright. 1897, by The Osprey Company. Entered at the 

 Galesburg Postoffice as second-class mail matter. 



THE OSPREY COMPANY. 

 61 N. Prairie St. Galesburg, III. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Dr. Frederick A. Cooke, the scientist and explorer, 

 who has been advertising an antarctic expedition in 

 recent numbers of The Osprey, sailed September 20 

 aboard the steamship 'Coleridge,' bound for Rio 

 Janeiro, where he will join the Belgian expedition 

 which is to leave that port in October for the explora- 

 tion of the antarctic regions, with the ultimate hope 

 of reaching the South Pole. Dr. Cooke, who goes 

 as a member of the scientific staff, intends to return 

 in about a year. He was surgeon of the first Peary 

 expedition to the north in 1891, and later was a mem- 

 ber of a relief party that went to the aid of that ex- 

 plorer. 



Illinois may soon have an ornithological club.' If 

 so, it will probably be due to the efforts of Mr. Clyde 

 L. Smith of Oblong, 111. Mr. Smith suggests that 

 the proposed club hold meetings monthly, and names 

 Peoria as probably the best point of meeting. Mr. 

 Smith's home is 150 miles from Peoria. It seems 

 that such a club might have the good attendance of 

 Central Illinois ornithologists, and the membership 

 and occasional presence of many others. Annual 

 meetings would, probably, also be held at points se- 

 lected by vote of the club. Persons interested in the 

 above should write to Mr. Smith. 



Hon. Dwight 'W. Huntington is a great friend of 

 artist Farney, famed for his Indian pictures, — a hint 

 of whose skill is voiced in our illustration 'The Home 

 of the Sage Grouse.' Mr. Farney's painting, 'The 

 War Party,' at the present Nashville Exposition, 

 stood first in the judgment of the committee. By an 

 error the picture was entered as 'loaned,' which 

 alone prevented him from receiving first prize of $700. 

 Mr. Huntington is an artist of marked ability, as his 

 drawing, 'The Sage Grouse,' will attest. 



Mr. E. E. Brewster of Iron Mountain, Mich., 

 speaking of the egg-blower or pump invented by him, 

 says: "If it would be of interest to you I can send 

 you a sample of the work that can be done with the 

 pump, in the shape of an egg shell (hen's) with the 

 contents removed through a .02 inch hole. I will 

 say in passing that nobody is advised to try this just 

 for fun. I seldom use a larger drill than a .03 inch 



dentist's cone burr. This spring I operated on a set 

 of Crow's eggs successfully in this manner : the em- 

 bryos were sufficiently advanced to enable me to 

 distinguish the various bones of wing and leg." This 

 seems that it might be the world's record for blow- 

 ing eggs with small holes. The 'Brewster pump' is 

 a boon to oologists. Illustration and directions for 

 making the pump, with slight modifications, are 

 given in the April O.sprey. 



Mr. Frank C. Willard of Galesburg, 111., who be- 

 came principal of Tombstone, Ariz., schools one year 

 ago, has spent part of the past summer in the Hua- 

 chuca Mountains, where he collected some very rare 

 specimens, including female and 14 eggs of the Mas- 

 sena Partridge, or Fool Quail ; set of 3 eggs each of 

 the Buff-breasted, Sulphur-bellied and Coues' Fly- 

 catchers, and several sets of the Rivoli Humming- 

 bird's eggs. Only a few sets of the Sulphur-bellied 

 Flycather have been taken in the United States ; the 

 female parent was taken with Mr. Willard's set. 



A letter from Mr. Taylor, formerly publisher of 

 'The Nidologist,' says that the business of that mag- 

 azine has been transferred to the 'Popular Science 

 News,' of New York. Mr. Taylor, however, retains 

 all back numbers of 'The Nidologist' and can fill 

 orders for same. Mr. Taylor says that his interest 

 in ornithology will still continue and that he has kind 

 wishes for The Osprev. 



We understand that the entire collection of eggs 

 secured by Mr. A. W. Anthony during his last expe- 

 dition, has been sold to Mr. James P. Babbitt of 

 Taunton, Mass It includes some extremely rare eggs, 

 such as those of the Black-vented Shearwater ; Guad- 

 alupe Petrel ; Guadalupe House Finch ; Xanthus 

 Murrelet ; Red-footed, Blue-footed and Brewster's 

 Booby, etc. Mr. Babbitt has placed them on sale. 



Of the Osprey's nest in this number Mr. H. S. 

 Hathaway says : " It is the largest of the some forty 

 nests which I have examined, being six feet deep and 

 four feet across. This bird is unusually tame ; I have 

 photographed the nest two different years and the 

 bird has alighted on the limb both times. Half way 

 up the tree is a hole in which a pair of Tree Swal- 

 lows nested the same year." 



Mr. and Mrs. W. J. B. Williams of Holland Pat- 

 ent, N. Y. are now the happy possessors of a boy, 

 who has been named Ralph Bendire Williams in 

 honor of Mr. Williams' two distinguished friends, 

 Dr. W. L. Ralph and the late Major Bendire. 



The photographs illustrating 'The Taking of a 

 California Condor's Egg,' in this number, are too in- 

 distinct for half-tone reproduction or to allow the 

 making of a drawing copy by the artist. 



Prof. D. B. Burroughs of Lacon, 111. writes that he 

 discovered an Orchard Oriole's nest at Casa Blanca, 

 Texas containing 5 eggs of the owner, 2 of the Dwarf 

 Cowbird, and 3 of the Red-eyed Cowbird. 



Prof. T. Gilbert Pearson is now at the North Car- 

 olina State University at Chapel Hill, where he will 

 be engaged on the State Geological Survey for the 

 next two years. 



A Little Blue Heron was shot at Niantic, Conn., on 

 August 4. It was seen by Mr. Philip J. McCook after 

 it had been stuffed, and he could not determine the 

 sex. 



The wedding of Dr. A. C. Murchison and Miss 

 Jennie Fell occurred at the home of the bride's par- 

 ents at Toulon, 111. on the evening of September 16. 



The engraved map of the New York Zoological 

 Park, shown in the last Osprkv, should have been 

 labeled : " Scale one inch to about 300 feet." 



