THE OSPREY. 



15 



a picture taken with an ordinary lens. A man 

 armed with a camera g"un can ^4-0 hiintinj;- just 

 as the g-unner does, except that instead of car- 

 tridg'es he uses sensitive tihns. He may enjoy 

 all the thrill of the hunter without the horror 

 of tcikino- life, and will, in addition, have a per- 

 manent record of each expedition. -Chicago 

 Tkihunk. 



[We reproduce this parag^raph as a matter of 

 news, but doubt the feasibility of the plan (save 

 in exceptional cases) on account of optical and 

 mechanical difficulties and the activity of the 

 birds. We should be pleased to learn the views 

 of expert photos^raphers. — EdiTok. | 



MoiKNiNG Warblek's Song. — Three speci- 

 mens of the Mourning-. Warbler — conspicuous, 

 loud-voiced songsters — were noticed to tarry 

 here about the borders of a bit of w(jodland 

 from the 14th to the 28th of May, 1899. 



One sang- very differently from the other two, 

 and all quite unlike the Marjdand Yellow-throat. 

 Consult Mr. Hathaway's notes in the March 

 OSPKBV.— E. D. DowNKK, Utica, N. Y., Julv 19, 

 1899. 



ShokT-Earkd Owl. — A portrait is here pre- 

 sented of a Short-eared Owl taken in Montana 

 and tamed so as to permit unusual familiarities. 



The photog-raph of the bird was sent by Prof. 

 M. J. Elrod. of the University of Montana, 

 Missoula. 



A Hybrid bktwekn a Guixea-fowl and 

 COMMON Hen was sent alive to Mr. P. L,. Sclater 



by Dr. Goeldi, of Para. (Brazil,) and noticed in 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 

 London for 1898, (p. 348). The male parent'was 

 a Guinea-fowl {Nuniida) and the female a do- 

 mestic fowl. The hybrid presented the g-eneral 

 appearance of a fowl with traces of the casque 

 and wattles of the other parent, and, although a 

 inale, was destitute of spurs, as is the Guinea- 

 fowl, and the voice, when it cried, was unmis- 

 takably like that of a Guinea-fowl". On the 

 other hand, there were "no observable traces of 

 the peculiar plumag-e of Nii)nida"\ This hybrid 

 was killed, and much of its skeleton (but not the 

 head and limbs) given to Mr. F. E. Beddard for 

 examination. The skeleton and the windpipe 

 were found to be "perfectly intermediate in 

 their characters between those of Nuuiida on 

 the one hand, and (.'alius on the other". A de- 

 tailed and illustrated comparison between the 

 skeleton of the hybrid and parent species is 

 published by Mr. Beddard in 'J he /his for July, 

 sustaining- his views. Hybrids between the 

 (xuinea-fowl and common fowl had been noticed 

 before, but Mr. Beddard is the first to have di.s- 

 cribed other than superficial characteristics of 

 the mong-rel. 



The Death of William Ed\vin Brooks 

 should have been noticed before as he died on 

 the 18th of January. Althoug-h a resident since 

 18S1 in Canada, chiefly at a place in Ontario called 

 Mount Forest, he has been known as an or- 

 nithologist mainU' by work on the birds of India, 

 where he was employed for many years as an 

 eng-ineer by the East India Railway Co. Noth- 

 ing notable appeared from his pen on American 

 birds. 



The Death of H. Alleyne Nicholson will 

 be heard of with regret by many in America, who 

 became ac'iuainte;! with him when he resided in 

 Cinada. He was born at Penrith, Scotland, 

 September 11, 184 K and died at Aberdeen Jan- 

 uary 19, 1899. He held the Profes^ors'rp of 

 Natural History in the University of Toronto 

 fron 1871 to 1874, and later he had a similar posi- 

 tion in the University of AberJeen. He is best 

 known to most by his text books of zoologj' and 

 paleontology, but his orig-inal investig-ations 

 were mostly confined to ])ale()nt<)logy and 

 g-e)!og-y. 



The Death of Adolph W.\lter, a German 

 Ornitholog-ist. occurred at Kassel, February 4, 

 at the age of 82 years. 



Thi', D::\th of Sir Frederick McCoy oc- 

 lurrel in May 1899, when he had reached the 

 age of 76. He was born at Dublin in 1823. He 

 early manifested considerable talent and origi- 

 nality in his geolog-ical and paleontological in- 

 vestigations in Ireland. In 1851) he was appoint- 

 ed Professor of Geology in Oueen's College, Bel- 

 fast, and in 1854 in the new University of Mel- 

 bourne, Australia, and retained that position till 

 his death. His first paper, published when a 

 youth, in 1838, was on the arrangement of the 

 Gulls, but later he practically abandoned orni- 

 thologv. 



