THE OSPREY. 



67 



iiiHiiner and several ci*o\V!5 who are silent and 

 unwilling- to proclaim their species. 



As we follow the timber back toward the 

 house a Bald eagle, which has been soaring- low 

 along the hill to avoid the high wind, receives a 

 bad scare, for he had come within fifty yards of 

 us before he discovered our presence. He 

 scolded us with an ang'ry cackle as he soug"ht 

 to increase the distance. 







The Flicker. Colaptes auratus. 

 (From Bulletin ~ of Division of Economic Biolog^y D. A.) 



In the meantime it has ceased raining- and 

 everA' now and then there is a rift in the clouds 

 and Old Sol sends forth a ray which passes over 



the city like a beam of some g-igantic search 

 light, lingering- but a moment upon some 

 favored spot, then all would drop back to the 

 drearj' aspect of the cloudy day. Word.s would 

 fail to describe this wonderful effect of light 

 and shade as well as the magnificent formation 

 of the clouds which seemed ever changing as 

 they were hastened on by the furiously raging 

 wind. 



January 1 — What a change! 

 But a week ag;o D a n d el i o n s 

 and that harbinger of spring, 

 Draha verna, were in bloom 

 everywhere, to say nothing of 

 many of our cultivated shrubs. 

 And now the ground is cover- 

 ed b^' snow, the river frozen; 

 skating is the ruling passion, 

 and we fall in ine. Bird life 

 is at a premium. The cold 

 northwest blast drives them to 

 seek denser shelter. In places 

 where the river is left open we 

 find hosts of crows, looking- for 

 stray morsels upon which to 

 subsist until the weather man 

 will bring- another more favor- 

 able spell. I noticed these 

 black brethren kissing in 

 broad daylight in the Smith- 

 sonian grounds two weeks ago. 

 No doubt the warm' weather 

 had caused them to dream of 

 love, home and s w i n g i n g 

 cradle. Their voice has more 

 of a ring today, there is more 

 business in it. The soft love 

 strains seem to have been 

 frozen out. Poor fellows I I 

 feel real sorry for them. 



Aside from a few barking 

 Song sparrows snugly housed 



in a sheltered brush heap we note nothing. 



Cold and hig-h wind do not appear to be condui 



cive to ornithological observations. 





ESTHETIC BIRDS: 



THE BOWER BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW GUINEA. 



By Theodore Gii^i,, Washing-ton, D. C. 



Perhaps the most remarkable manifestation 

 of an esthetic instinct known among animals 

 outside of man is exemplified hj certain birds 

 of Australia and New Guinea collectively known 

 as Bower Birds. These constitute what has 

 been called the subfamily Ptilonorhynchinae 

 (or Ptilorhynchinae) and have been referred to 

 the families Paradiseidae and Timeliidae as 

 well as differentiated from all others as a pe- 

 culiar family — Ptilonorhynchidae. "Their hab- 

 its" seemed to Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe "to asso- 

 ciate them with the Ground Thrushes and Bab- 

 blers, of which they will form an outlying- 

 group with affinities towards the Crows and 

 Paradise birds." Hence they were formerU- 

 placed bj' Dr. Sharpe among the Timeliida?, a 

 heterogeneous assemblage without common 

 distinctive characters — "a refuge for the desti- 

 tute." Dr. Sharpe later, however, isolated the 



g-roup as an independent family. Eater still, 

 the Hon. Walter Rothschild, a notable collector 

 and student of the Birds of Paradise, has asso- 

 ciated them with the latter in the same family 

 — Paradiseidae — without even recog-nizing a 

 subfamily distinction between them and the 

 true Birds of Paradise. With these conflicting- 

 views confronting us, it may be best to accept 

 provisionally' the group Ptilonorh^'nchinaj. We 

 must admit, however, that no characters of 

 family value have as 3'et been shown to distin- 

 g^uish the group from the Corvidze, much less 

 from the Paradiseida?. 



But whatever may be their relations, the 

 Ptilonorh^-nchina; form a natural g-roup re- 

 stricted to the Australian or Austroga;an zoo- 

 logical realm and exhibit more or less agree- 

 ment in ecological characters — especially nest- 

 ing and esthetic habits. 



