14 



THE OOLOGIST. 



for flesh, which was given them by the 

 Omnipotent. When birds are ruthlessly 

 torn to pieces and devoured they help 

 to keep life in the captor for a few 

 hours only, but when they are taken by 

 the naturalist he preserves and keeps 

 them in his private collection, or places 

 them in a museum, where they usually 

 remain many decades, and during that 

 time they give hours of pleasure and 

 instruction to ail lovers of natural sci- 

 ence. After making this comparison 

 can we conscientiously say that the 

 ornithologist is more cruel than the 

 designer of all things, who ordained 

 that harmless and beautiful birds, of all 

 kinds, should be rent and demolished 

 by merciless beaks and fangs? I think 

 not. It seems to me the cruelty of the 

 naturalist is very small in comparison, 

 and that the collector of birds, for 

 scientific purposes, is perfectly justified 

 by the glaring example set by his 

 Maker. 



One more point. The naturalist is 

 often called a cruel wretch by the mass- 

 es. How far is their judgment consist- 

 ent? With one, if you say: "That bird 

 is a Kirtland's Warbler and its skin is 

 worth six dollars, ' the person will im- 

 mediately lose sight of the wickedness, 

 and no doubt, he will want to try col- 

 lecting specimens himself. Further, 

 some think any thing that is very nice 

 to eat, it is perfectly allowable and 

 justifiable to kill. It matters not 

 whether it be pretty or useful. That 

 class will judge by their palate and 

 stomach. Oh, shallow humanity! 



If God has willed that repulsive rep- 

 tiles and brutal beasts shall have their 

 choice of food from the most beautifui, 

 gentle, melodious, and conesquently 

 pleasing, of the animated species of the 

 earth ought it to be called cruel if man 

 in the interest of progressive knowledge 

 destroys a few birds? Every intelligent 

 reader, after due consideration of the 

 subject in hand, will, I think, say em- 

 phatically; "No !" 



Birds of Montana. 



In writing about the birds of Mon- 

 tana, I will not endeavor to write about 

 all the birds but only such as I have 

 come in contact with this last summer 

 and last winter. 



I will begin with the winter residents. 

 Along in November when we have a 

 cold wave we can see the little Snow- 

 flakes flying about in flocks uttering 

 their twittering ehirup: sometimes 

 mixed with them may be seen a few 

 Rosy Finches. There are not so very 

 many Rosy Finches that winter in this 

 locality, but there are quite a good 

 many when it is very cold. The Snowy 

 Owl comes down from his summer 

 home and visits us during the winter, 

 as can be shown by the number of 

 stufl'ed specimens which are found 

 among the different collections. I have 

 seen the Canada Jay and Long-crested 

 Jay here also but think they are only 

 winter residents. 



Those of the birds which stay here all 

 the year are not many. We have both 

 the Golden and Bald Eagles which stay 

 the year round. The Golden Eagle 

 breeds here but 1 have been unable to 

 secure any eggs. They build in pine 

 trees. 



A boy told me last summer of finding 

 a nest of a large black bird; he de- 

 scribed the bird and the four eggs 

 which the nest contained, and it must 

 have been that of a Golden Eagle, but 

 what was peculiar about it was that the 

 nest was placed upon a hill side, which 

 was pretty steep but not so steep but 

 that the boy could walk up to it. There 

 is an old nesting place near here where 

 they have reai'ed their young for years. 

 I climbed the tree and the nest was 

 about five feet high. For some reason 

 they did not build there this year, al- 

 though I see them ai'ound. A young 

 man told me he shot at one of them and 

 that may be the reason for their leaving 

 the place. 



