THE OSPREY. 



117 



of technical nomenclature, they at least possess the 

 quality of novelty : 



Raven Too-loo-ah. 



Ptarmigan Ah-kik-sha. 



Snowy Owl Oo-pik-sha. 



Gyrfalcon Ker-shoo-i-ark-soohk. 



Black Guillemot Sug-wa. 



Little Auk Ock-pa 



Kittiwake Ta-ta-ra 



Burgomaster Now-ya 



Eider Me-tik 



Old Squaw Uh-gly 



Snowflake Koo-per-noo 



Snow Goose Kung-oh 



BARN SWALLOWS IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 



GEORGE F. 



USUALLY Barn Swallows do not colonize for the 

 purpose of bringing forth their young, and as 

 a departure from the usual habit of one or two 

 pairs occupying the eaves of a shed or dwelling, I offer 

 the following : In the midst of a great grass plateau, 

 and on the line of the Santa Fe and Sonora Railroad 

 is the station of Elgin, composed of a section house, 

 a few out-buildings, a side-track and some empty box 

 cars. The section house is of the regulation style — 

 two stories with an L, and painted an Indian red. 

 Windows were numerous, and from the opposite of 

 the track where myself and party were camped I saw 

 that each of the upper windows on that side of 

 the building supported two Swallow's nests. After a 



BRENINGER. 



round of inspection I found there were thirteen in- 

 habited nests, all under the roof of one building. At 

 that date they probably contained eggs. 



On the return trip, we made the same place for 

 dinner. The swallows were then feeding young. To 

 the north of this place no water is to be found for 

 miles, and all cattle ranging in that region are forced 

 to water in and around Elgin. In consequence of 

 this flies were numerous. This may account, in part, 

 for the unusual number of Barn Swallows using one 

 shelter in common for nidification. Then, too, the 

 altitude being about 4500 feet, the summer days are 

 much cooler than throughout the desert region of 

 Arizona, where the Rough-winged Swallow is the 

 only Swallow that remains to nest. 



ALEXANDER WILSON AND THE ISPSWICH SPARROW. 



WITMER STONE. 



AS a rule we are content to date the history of a 

 species from the time when it was first made 

 known to science under a binomial appellation. 

 Occasionally, however, it is interesting to go a few 

 steps farther back and see whether anything was 

 known of it before it appeared under the name by 

 which we know it The Ipswich Sparrow is a case 

 in point. 



Probably no North American bird has been more 

 carefully monographed than this wild and compara- 

 tively little known Sparrow ; and yet in spite of Dr. 

 Dwight's painstaking memoir there is, to my mind, a 

 chapter in the history of the bird which he has over- 

 looked 



According to our published record the Ipswich 

 Sparrow was first obtained by Mr. C. J. Maynard at 

 Ipswich, Mass., in December, 1868, and was for some 

 time confused with Cnilronvx I'niidii, a bird which 

 had been completely lost sight of since the time of 

 Audubon. In 1872 it was discovered that the Ipswich 

 bird was not Bairdii, and it was described as a new 

 species, " Passcrcu/us princt'ps,'" now Atiniiodianius 

 priincps, of the A. O. U. list. No previous mention 

 of the bird is quoted by Dr. Dwight except a reference 

 to a " little brown sparrow " in Gilpin's ' Sable Island' 

 (1858), which doubtless referred to this species. 



Some years ago my friend Mr. I. N. DeHaven 

 called my attention to Alexander Wilson's figure of 

 the male Savanna Sparrow, saying that he felt con- 

 vinced that the painting was made from an Ipswich 

 Sparrow ; and an examination of the text has fully 

 confirmed me in this belief. Some to whom I have 

 mentioned the matter have contended that the figure 

 merely represented a spring example of the Savanna, 

 and as the matter fortunately has no bearing on the 

 question of nomenclature I let it rest. 



As, however, it is of considerable popular interest 

 to know that Wilson was acquainted with the Ipswich 



Sparrow, even though he did confuse it with the Sa- 

 vanna Sparrow, I take pleasure in calling attention 

 to the fact I may add that a more recent examina- 

 tion of the plates and text more firmly convinces me 

 that Wilson had both species in hand when he drew 

 his male and female Savanna Sparrows. 



In describing the female Savanna Sparrow (Vol. 

 III. p. 55) he says : "The drawing of this bird was in 

 the hands of the engraver before I was aware that 

 the male (a figure of which will appear in Volume IV, ) 

 was so much its superior in beauty of markings and 

 in general colors." Now the male and female Savan- 

 na Sparrow are really indistinguishable, and even 

 when we select specimens showing the greatest sea- 

 sonal variation exhibited by the species, we find the 

 difference so slight that an ornithologist of Wilson's 

 time would not have considered it worthy of remark, 

 much less of illustration. Moreover, the figures show 

 very nicely the relative difference in the colors of the 

 two species, though all the Finches in these old works 

 are somewhat over-colored, and Wilson's "male" Sa- 

 vanna is quite as accurate a representation of the 

 Ipswich Sparrow as the "female" is of the Savanna. 

 His descriptions to m\- mind offer any corroboration 

 that may be needed. 



He speaks of yellow over the eye in each descrip- 

 tion, and although the Ipswich Sparrows do not as a 

 rule show this while wintering on the New Jersey 

 coast, nevertheless specimens secured just before 

 leaving for the North in March have the yellow eye- 

 brow completely molted in. The only discrepancy in 

 the description is in the measurements, which are 

 given as the same for each sex, /. <■., "5 '4 inches long 

 and 8K in extent." This is a little long for the aver- 

 age Savanna, and short for the Ipswich, but Wilson 

 and his contemporaries did not have their measures 

 very finely divided, and evidently did not take much 

 care in making their measurements. 



