96 



THE OOLOGIST 



T^fte ©otogi^l 



FOURTH PUBLICATION YEAR. 



SUMMER NUMBER, 1879. 



Bound copies of Volume IV. of this jour- 

 nal may be obtaiued at this office. Price, 

 75 cents. Unbound, 60 cents. 



Volume V. — Subscribers to Volume IV. 

 whose terms of subscription expire with this 

 number, are referred to the notice accom- 

 panying this issue. We hope that every 

 one will renew. 



We have printed a complete index to 

 the volume just ended, wliich our readers 

 will find accompanying this number. Vol- 

 ume IV. contains one hundred pages of 

 oological and ornithological information, 

 which we feel qualified to pronounce fully 

 equal in value to the subscription price, not 

 to speak of the engravings which have been 

 published from time to time. 



SUBJECTS OOLOGIOALLY CONSIDEEED. 



VI. REFLECTIONS. 



T^HE season for birds' eggs being nearly 

 at an end, collectors have begun to elab- 

 orate their notes and arrange their cabinets. 

 There are a few species yet to be found 

 nesting, but with the majority the chirp of 

 the birdling announces the waning of anoth- 

 er year. In looking over the season's notes, 



there are to be noticed a few late sets of 

 eggs taken in July, when most birds are 

 quiet and nature seems to be dead. Some 

 of these were second depositions and others 

 the last of the year's extended fruits, from 

 which there always happen many late 

 broods. Our book shows a larger number 

 of late sets than usual, excluding those 

 which are to be sought for latest. Nests 

 whose contents were expected to furnish 

 material for skill with the embryo instru- 

 ments were, with but one or two exceptions, 

 found to be only partially used, incubation 

 having advanced but few days ; and this 

 was the more fortunate, since many of the 

 sets were valuable. Various reasons might 

 be assigned for the lateness of these clutch- 

 es, but on account of the isolation of many 

 of them, with a small degree of satisfaction : 

 the season has been in all respects favora- 

 ble to early and quick house-building and 

 oviposition, so we must look to the minor 

 causes of tardiness, and these are not easi- 

 ly and satisfactorily disposed of, unless the 

 collector has been in the same local field 

 during the season, and has had ample op- 

 portunity for giving close attention to and 

 keeping each of several species under his 

 constant vigilance. 



— In connection with the above might 

 be mentioned the frequency with which the 

 collector is brought into contact with addled 

 eggs, sometimes in a nest together with 

 young birds, at others after parents and 

 young have taken their departure. In the 

 former instance, it is fortunate for the col- 

 lector ; in the latter it is equally mortify- 

 ing, for in the one case the identity may be 

 certain, in the other not merely doubtful, but 

 impossible to be determined with accuracy, 

 excepting, perhaps, in regard to some of the 

 best known species, whose eggs resemble 

 those of no other bird. Occasionally one 

 comes upon " rare" specimens in this way, 

 which search during thei season of oviposition 

 had failed to reveal. It is surprising how 

 some eggs, the contents of which have been 

 spoiled in incubation, can withstand the 

 rough usage which they must undergo before 

 the young quit the nest, and yet often be found 



