THE OSPREY. 



41 



with the F<isst-;-rs. There occurred to me as I read 

 through this fascinating work, a few questions which 

 I will submit : 



1. Would it not assist the young reader in study- 

 ing the range of species, if he knew where the scene 

 were laid? He is told nowhere, except by inference 



2. Is it right for a Swift to alight on a telegraph 

 wire, as it is said to do on page 5? The other birds 

 all act in a natural manner, in joining the group. 



3. The American Goldfinch, on page 213, is said 

 to utter its flight-call "on every down-grade curve." 

 Is it not a well-known 



fact that this is 

 done only on the up- 

 ward curve? I have 



been observing this -^ 



carefully all sum- 

 mer. 



4. On page 295, the 

 young Hummingbird 

 is said to put its bill 

 into the beak of the 

 old bird while feed- 

 ing; and, on page 313, 

 the young F^licker is 

 said feed in the same 

 wa) . Is it not estab- 

 lished beyond a doubt 

 by Mr. William Brew- 

 ster and others that in 

 the case of the Flicker 

 the old bird inserts its 

 bill into the throat of 

 the young bird, and is 

 not this also equally 

 proved in the case of 

 the Hummer? — Wal- 

 ter Deane, C/i ///- 

 /iridgY, Mass. 



[i. The scene is set 

 in Southern New Eng- 

 land, not far from New 

 York, but purposely 

 left a little indefinite. 



2. Perhaps there 

 was a chimney close 

 by for the Swift to set- 

 tle on I At any rate, 

 the book does not say 

 the bird alighted on 

 the wire — simply that 

 it "joined the group. " 



3. See Chapman's 

 Handbook, p. 2S7. 



4. This is an error that will be corrected in future 

 editions. I marked it for attention on the proofs, 

 but by some oversight it escaped correction. — E. C] 



AN OSPREY S AT BRISTOL, R. I 



A CRITICISM. 



In The C)si're\ for September appears an article 

 entitled ' A Trip to Assiniboia,' by Mr. E. Arnold, to 

 which 1 feel in duty bound to reply as briefly as 

 possible. 



Mr. Arnold speaks of taking sets of Richardson's 

 Merlin's eggs as though the\- were as common as 

 Sparrow Hawk's, but gives no particulars as to 

 locality and date, or whether the parents were 

 secured : without which data it is impossible to deter- 

 mine the ' sets. ' He also states that all the nests were 

 open ones, built by the birds in maple trees. 



Personally I know of two authentic sets of these 

 extremely rare eggs, both of which were taken from 

 holes in Poplars, there being practically no nest, the 



eggs lying on the rubbish at the bottom of the hole. 

 On July 22. 1895, 1 took 5 downy young of Richard- 

 son's Merlin from the broken top of a black Poplar, 

 near Calgary, Alberta, the male was shot, together 

 with three of the young can be seen in the Museum 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada at Ottawa, 

 Ontario. 



The Maple d(jes not grow in the Canadian North- 

 west beyond Fort William on the North shore of 

 Lake Superior. 



I should advise Mr. Arnold not to make public 



this Assiniboian lo- 

 cality where Richard- 

 son's Merlin is said 

 to breed so abund- 

 antly, for if he does, 

 collectors will rush 

 there next season, 

 and sets of Fa ho 

 riiliardsoui will be at 

 a premium. — (i. I- . 

 DippiE, 7'oii>iiti>, Oii- 



llllio. 



OBITI'ARY. 



Louis W. IJrokaw 

 died at Carmel. Ind., 

 Sept. 3, after a five 

 days' illness of brain 

 fever, and the news of 

 his death will be read 

 with regret by his 

 many friends in or- 

 nithology. Mr. Bro- 

 kaw was an Associate 

 Member of the Amer- 

 ican Ornithologists' 

 Union and an active 

 member of theC\)oper 

 Ornithological Club of 

 California, with which 

 he became associated 

 soon after its organi- 

 zation in 1S93. 



Mr. Brokaw for- 

 merly resided at Sali- 

 nas, Slontere} County, 

 ("al., where he made 

 many careful and in- 

 teresting observations 

 on the birds of that 

 locality. Several val- 

 uable papers were 

 presented by him 

 through the Cooper Club on the nidification of the 

 California I'ygmy Owl. Pygmy Nuthatch and other 

 species 



Mr. Brokaw was in all respects an earnest, exact 

 and conscientious worker, and that such a promising 

 life should be cut short is a matter of deep regret to 

 his manv friends. — C. Barlow. 





>fH^J 



OSPREY SERIES NO. II. 



LIST OF THE BIRDS OF MAINE. 



I have received many requests for the ' List of the 

 Birds of Maine' which I am unable to grant because 

 my share of the edition is exhausted. Had the ap- 

 plicants for the list inclosed stamps in their letters I 

 would have been happy to have written them explain- 

 ing matters, but as it is I must decline to do so A few 

 copies may still be obtained from Prof F. L. Har- 

 vey. Uni\ersity of Maine, Orono, but requests for 

 these should contain 5 cents in stamps for postage on 

 same. — Respectfully, O. W. Knight. 



