40 



THE OOLOGIST 



to be seen coming from every quarter. They 

 are permitted to gorge themselves until un- 

 able to walk ; then lassoes are thrown, and 

 the birds strangled or taken alive, at the 

 option of" their captors. They are very 

 tenacious of lil'e. Humboldt alluding to a 

 case where the bird was hung up by the 

 head for a considerable length of time, and 

 afterwards struck Avith four pistol bullets, 

 at the distance of four paces, but did not 

 die for half an hour after receiving his 

 wounds. The Condor lives to a very old 

 age, and seems to thrive well in captivity, 

 an old male surviving an imprisonment of 

 over thirty-five years. 



General Items. 



— A YOUNG White-headed Eagle was 

 taken upon the St. Lawrence River by Dr. 

 Gray, of Utica, measuring eight feet in al- 

 ar extent. The beak, legs, and claws of 

 the bird were enormous — sufficiently so to 

 compel one to think it some other species. 

 The largest P^agles oi' this species seldom 

 attain a spread of more than ninety inches. 



— A Yellow Rail {Porzana novehora- 

 censis) was obtained recently in the central 

 part of New York by Mr. E. Bagg, Jr. 



— We notice in the Familial- Science 

 that a new species of Hawk, called Bnteo 

 alhi-caudatus, has been recently determin- 

 ed to belong properly to the North Ameri- 

 can fauna. Its discovery is due to Mr. (t. 

 B. Sennett, further more conclusive obser- 

 vations having been made by Dr. Merrill. 



— CoKUECTiON. — The Mourning War- 

 bler announced in the June number, among 

 the additions to the avi-fauna of Illinois, is 

 noted in Nelson's Birds of N. E. Illinois. 

 His knowledge, however, seems to have 

 been based on circumstantial evidence. 



W. II. Ballou. 



— Young Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa mn- 

 bdlus) are plenty (Oswego, N. Y.), ami 

 about the size of a full-grown Quail. . . . 

 The young of the Wood Duck {^Aix aponsa) 

 are half-grown and well-fledged, except the 



wings, wliich seem latest to develop. . . . 

 Quail [Ortijx rirginiannfi) witli their young 

 have been recently seen in this vicinity, for 

 the first time in several years. Under the 

 protection of ti)e game laws, it is to be hop- 

 ed that they will increase. J. A.Seveuanck 

 July IG. 



Recent J^ibUcatious. 



The IncligUnlity of the European House 

 Sparrow in America, by Dr. Cones, con- 

 tained in the American Naturalist, is a 

 practical exposition of the situation. And 

 should the question of the unlimited in- 

 crease of the Sparrow become as serious 

 as present appearances seem to indicate, 

 some such measiu'es as Dr. Coues suggests, 

 would have to be enforced. If tlie Sparrows 

 were left to their own resources, and not 

 fed by the citizens ; and were they not pro- 

 tected from their natural enemies, if they 

 have any, they would in a measure cease 

 to be the bugbear they are now considered. 

 If oiu' own birds were pampered and shield- 

 ed with equal ardor and compassion, we 

 would have no need of a foreign species to 

 help us fight the worms ! 



The Nuttall Bulletin continues to occu- 

 py a high position in ornithological litera- 

 ture. The papers by Drs. Brewer and 

 Coues, Messrs. Allen, Brewster, and oth- 

 er scientists, coupled with the genei'al notes 

 and literary notices, make up a galaxy of 

 rare scientific merit. The nesting of the 

 Solitary Tatler, mentioned in the Notes, is 

 an item of importance in ornithological cir- 

 cles, since it throws light upon the subject 

 of the position of the nest and the general 

 appearance of the eggs, cohcerning which 

 tliere has been some controversy. Dr. 

 Brewer says that tliis nest was placed upon 

 the ground ; the egg ineasiued 1.37 by .9o, 

 and its ground color was a liglit drab, over 

 which were ''scattered small I'ounded mark- 

 ings of brown, some of these quite dark, 

 nowhere confluent, and never large enough 

 to be called blotches." In shape, it was 

 an enlongated pyriform. 



