THE OSPREY. 



m 



llornaday can spare time for this "missionary work, " 

 surely, many ornithologists. bus\' and otherwise, will 

 not allow him to do it all, though such work is char- 

 acteristic of him 



The editor will attend tlii A, ( r. U. convention in 

 New York city during the second week of November. 

 .\ny mail that should recei\e his immediate attention 

 should be plainl}- marked ' forward ' -thus marked it 

 will be remailed to the New \'nrk address. 



Mr J. H Clark of I'aterson, N. J., is now with the 

 National Mexican Mining and Developing Company 

 at Kl I'loma. Sonora. Mexico, where we trust the 

 birds will receive his attention. 



The range of the Great .-\uk has just been con- 

 siderably extended by the finding of bones of this 

 species in Northern Ireland at about 50* N. latitude. 



Mr. Ci. I). Emerson of Denver, Colo., will attend 

 the Massachu.setts Institute of Technology in Boston 

 the ensuing year. 



Mr. N. R. Christie of House Junction, Colo., re- 

 turned Oct. I from a month's outing-trip into Routt 

 County. 



The October number of ' The Museum ' an inter- 

 esting magazine devoted to natural science, puldished 

 at .41bion, N. \.. contains the portrait of Dr. Theo- 

 dore N. Gill, that eminent ornithologist who was 

 recently elected I'resident of the .\merican Associa- 

 tion for the .Advancement of Science. 



bulletin No. 15 of the Wilson Ornithological 

 Chapter of the Agassiz .■\ssr)ciation is a special num- 

 ber of 24 pages and two maps, devoted to a paper on 

 'The Oberlin Summer (irackle Roost' b\ F'rof. 

 Lynds Jones, who has made a careful study of a 

 grackle roost in the college campus at Oberlin. Ohio. 

 The result of his work is written in a pleasing style 

 and is truK a treat to the readers of the ' Bulletin . 



Dr. Goue8' Column. 



Recent Literature. 



Reporl on the Birds Recorded during a ','isil to the 

 Islands of Santa Bar/>ai-a, San .Vir/toAis and San 

 Cleincnte, in tlie Spring of iSgj. By Joseph Grin- 

 NELL. Pasadena ( Cal. ) Academy of Sciences. Pub- 

 lication No. I. 



Mr. Grinnell is well known as an active worker of 

 Southern California. His report consists of full 

 field notes on the varieties of birds met with by the 

 exploring party to these islands, and deals first with 

 the land birds of each island and lastly with the 

 water birds collectively. Some of the insular forms 

 may become separated as a new species from the 

 mainland forms Eggs of several rare subspecies 

 were taken and an adult male Magnolia Warbler, 

 l^endroita iinidilosa , probably the first California 

 record, was taken by Mr. Grinnell, May 15, on 

 Santa Barbara Island. The report is neatly and 

 carefully arranged and of special value and interest. 

 The party was sent out by the .Academy, with Mr. 

 Grinnell in charge of the expedition and he gave 

 especial attention to the ornithologv and entomology 

 of the islands ; Horace Gaylord collected mammals, 

 and Harry Gaylord and James Brittan devoted their 

 time to archaeology. — D. A. C 



Ho7ii lo knoiv the Shore Birds ( LiiniioLc J of Nortli 

 Ameriia. By Charles B. Cokv. Boston. Little, 

 Brown & Co.. 1^97. 



How to know the Shore Birds' will not be ditfi- 

 cult for any one who has in hand Mr. Charles B. 

 Cory's book of that title, including clear analytical 

 tables and good description of the Liniitola of North 

 .-Vmerica, south of Greenland and .Alaska, all the 

 species being grouped according to size and color, 

 and illustrated with clear figures, b\ Mr Edward 

 Knobel, of the most diagnostic points of each species, 

 as well as numerous full length portraits. The w^ork 

 is inexpensive, and should prove no less useful than 

 it is attractive. — E. C. 



A late addition to Thk Ospkev's magazine ex- 

 change list is the ' Forest and Stream ' This weekly 

 holds a place distincth- above anything of its kind. 

 It is edited by that eminent ornithologist. Dr. George 

 Bird Cirinnell, and published in New York at $4 per 

 year. 



The bibliography of ornithology is a subject which 

 occupied me for several years, in the seventies, and 

 upon which 1 expended an enormous amount of 

 labor, mainly with my own pen. with comparatively 

 little ostensible result. In 18S0 I had published four 

 installments of my intended ' Universal Bibliography 

 of Ornithology,' these being a few thousand titles 

 relating to the birds of North and South America 

 and Great Britain. In that year my machinery for 

 doing the work broke down, and I found myself 

 amidst the debris of the great plan I had projected 

 or partially accomplished, with many thousand man- 

 uscript titles on hand, and no prospect of their ever 

 seeing the light. What I had been able to do was to 

 set the highwater mark of excellence in such work, 

 and make a model for the bibliographer of the future, 

 in those small portions of the whole undertaking 

 which appeared in print It was not only good work, 

 but also extremely useful and sorely needed ; and I 

 think I never did anything else in my life which 

 brought me such hearty praise "in mouths of wisest 

 censure" — immediate and almost universal recogni- 

 tion, at home and abroad, from ornithologists who 

 knew that bibliography was a necessary nuisance, 

 and a horrible drudgery that no mere drudge could 

 perform. It takes a sort of an inspired idiot to be a 

 good bibliographer, and his inspiration is as danger- 

 ous a gift as the appetite of the gambler or dipso- 

 maniac — it grows with what it feeds upon, and finally 

 possesses its victim like any other invincible vice. 

 Perhaps it is lucky for me that I was forcibly divorced 

 from my bibliographical mania : at any rate, years 

 have cured me of the habit, and I shall never agam 

 be spell-bound in that way. But m\ own cure need 

 not and will not deter others from trying bibliography 

 for themselves : we must all buy our experiences, and 

 are lucky if we do not pay too dearly for them. 

 .After all these years, during which the vast accumu- 

 lation of unpublished titles slept on my hands, and 

 during which I abandoned all hope of their utiliza- 

 tion. I have just sent to a gentleman in England 

 evervthing I own in manuscript relating to British 

 birds, for the preparation of a new and up-to-date 

 edition of that portion of my published bibliography 

 I trust he does not enter upon his bibliographical 

 travail with too light a heart — if he does, may the 

 Nemesis who overrules us all have mercy on his 

 bibliographical soul I This raises another question, 

 which may be put in this way : Where is the man 

 who will undertake to bring my North American 

 Bibliography up-to-date :" The field is white to the 

 harvesting of a splendid crop of titles of books and 

 papers published on the birds of North America 

 since my scythe has been rusting ; and on the basis of 

 what I garnered years ago any aspirant for fame who 



