30 



THE OSPREY. 



binn Miisouin. The foniiation in wliich the ei^t;- 

 was fouiul is rei4"arded as of "early niicceiie 

 ag-e", and the layer is supposed to have been an 

 "Anatine bird" or duck. We are giad to say 

 that no Latin name has been given to the 

 species because no distinctive characters are 

 g'iven. Indeed it is not evident why the egg" is 

 sujjposed to have been a duck's. Dr. Farrington 

 and Mr. I?rvan to the contrary notwithstanding. 



ErKOPR.A.x Phk.\s.\nts .\xd Gkousk In Ver- 

 mont. — From time to time there is mention of 

 Dr. Webb's great estate, Shelburne Farms, in 

 the newspapers. Its extent and the way it is 

 conducted are matters of which not so much is 

 known. It is situated seven miles south of Bur- 

 lington on the shore of Lake Champlain. The 

 property comprises between 3,000 and 4,000 acres, 

 divershed in meadow, forest and broad and well- 

 tilled fields. It is one of the largest estates east 

 of the Mississippi. Dr. Webb tirst went to Bur- 

 lington in 1883. and spent the season in this city. 

 He was so pleased with the surroundings that, 

 in 1884, he bought a track of land about one 

 mile south of the citj' on the lake shore, and 

 erected a handsome residence. This place he 

 called Oak Ledg-e. He resided here until 1887, 

 when, desiring- a larg^er place, he purchased 

 what is now known as Shelburne Farms, in the 

 town of Shelburne. Eighteen farms and parts 

 of several other farms were included in the pur- 

 chase. An army of men was set to work con- 

 structing- a country house and immense barns 

 and stables, and in building- roads, planting- 

 trees, transforming this typical Vermont farm- 

 ings region into a g-reat park. Nature had done 

 much for Shelburne Farms in providing- a fine 

 location. It would not be easy to find a more 

 beautiful outlook. Lake Champlain. with its 

 Adirondack Mountain wall as a background, 

 lies to the west, and the Green Mountains, the 

 backbone of Vermont, to the east, forming- a 

 combination which, for scenic beaut}', is most 

 attractive. 



The forests on the estate are well stocked with 

 game, much time and money having- been spent 

 in the process. A game keeper is employed to 

 look after the preserves. A specialty has been 

 made of breeding- English pheasants. These 

 birds are verj- hard to raise, and there are few 

 pheasant preserves in the country. Dr. Webb 

 has been able, however, to raise them succes.s- 

 fully, and the birds are sometimes found even in 

 remote parts of the State. Requests for eg-gs are 

 constantly being- received from all parts of the 

 country. The birds are fed four times a day, 

 coming- in response to the keeper's whistle. 

 The)' are quite tame until the hunting season 

 opens. The annual hunt occurs in November, 

 and is a great event. About thirt\' men 

 are sent out to beat the bushes and scare the 

 birds. The pheasant is a bird of rapid flight, 

 and becomes very wild after the first day's 

 shooting, scattering to all parts of the surround- 

 ing country. There are usually not more than 

 six hunts during the .season. Man)' guests who 

 enjoy shooting are entertained at this time. 

 From 200 to 300 brace are usually shot each 

 season and the tables of many well-known 

 citizens of New York, Vermont and other states 



are graced by birds from Shelburne Farms. 

 The preserves have also been stocked with black 

 game, imported from Sweden — a bird about the 

 size of a partridge, very black and very wild — 

 and the capercailzie, aV)out the size of an eag-le. 

 The capercailzie have been removed to Ne-ha- 

 sa-ne. Dr. Webb's Adirondack estate. [Con- 

 densed from Thk Srx, N. Y., Sept. 17, 1899.] 



Dk. a. B. Mkvkk, the distinguished director of 

 the Royal Zoolog-ical and Anthropological Mu- 

 seum of Dresden, has been recently visiting the 

 United States. He landed at New York on the 

 8th of August, and spent nearly a fortnight 

 in the city of Washing'ton, arriving there on the 

 fourteenth. The ornitholog-ists and other natu- 

 ralists g-reeted him with great pleasure. His 

 visit was with I'eference especially to Museum 

 construction and arrangement. Dr. Meyer has 

 brought together in Dresden one of the most 

 complete collections of the Birds of Paradise 

 extant, and was the first to describe soine of the 

 most remarkable t^'pes of that group. At an 

 interview with the president, he gave his 

 ideas of the Philippine islanders as well as the 

 islands. 



The Death of John Whitehead, "the emi- 

 nent field-naturalist and collector", deserves spe- 

 cial record in the Osprey on account of his asso- 

 ciation with the recently acquired American 

 possessions, the Philippine Islands, whose avi- 

 fauna he explored so long and successfulU'. 

 Mr. Whitehead was born in 1856, and died on 

 the second of June, 1899, in the Chinese Island 

 of Hainan. He had started in the fall of 1898 

 from England with the intention of making a 

 second visit to the Philippines and reached 

 Manila, but the unfortunate complications pre- 

 vailing- forbade the carrying- out his plans and, 

 as the next best thing, he went to the island 

 where he lost his life from an attack of "pesti- 

 tential fever". 



Nearly three years from the close of 1893 to 

 about the middle of 1896, were devoted by Mr. 

 Whitehead to the Avifauna of the Philippine 

 Archipelago. The results of this exploration in 

 those islands were recorded by Mr. W. R. 

 Og-ilvie Grant in ten articles "on the birds of the 

 Philippine Islands", published in the Ihis during 

 1894, 1895, 1896 and 1897, in which the species of 

 different regions were successively considered. 



It has been announced by Mr. P. L. Sclater 

 that Mr. Whitehead, "before leaving" for the 

 Philippine Islands, "placed in the hands of the 

 editors of the Ibis a series of valuable field notes 

 on the birds collected during his last journey. 

 These will appear in the forthcoming volume" 

 of the journal. 



The Spectator oi London has an excellent 

 article on Mr. W^hitehead as a representative 

 of "pioneer naturalists." It is well said that 

 "Mr. Whitehead was a representative of a class 

 to which scientific natural histor)' owes a debt, 

 and whose life and adventures are often among 

 the most attractive of all records of exploration. 

 The business of the naturalist-collector is to 

 acquire and bring back to the museums of 



