THE OSPREY. 



79 



Letters. 



The First Rkcokd of Tikius swainsoni in 

 Russia. By Nik. von Ssomow. 



Utica. N. Y.. Nov. ft. ISW. 

 Editors of the Ospkev: 



The inaccessible Tschiisi zu Schiiiidhoffeirs 

 Ornitholdgisches Jahrbuch, ISQft, Heft. 2. p. 74- 

 80, is reported to have an article entitled *' Tiirdiis 

 szcaiusoni in Russland". 



I would like to know about this species- the 

 Olive-backed Thrush in Russia. Perhaps a 

 note on this subject mit^ht interest others as 

 well. 



Respectfully. 



E. D. DOWNKK. 



[We take pleasure in complying" with Mr. 

 Downer's request, as we consider the article in 

 question of interest to all readers of the Ospkev. 

 We publish it in the form of a translation by 

 our Mr. Bartsch. EditoksI. 



On the 10th day of November, 1893, N st. [new 

 style], one of my friends. Mr. Tschernechin, 

 shot a small thrush in the i:;"arden of his villa in 

 the vicinity' of the city of Charkow, which he at 

 first considered a dwarf Song" Thrush. How- 

 ever, as he was uncertain about it, he sent the 

 skin of the bird to me. The same proved to be 



a Swainson's Thrush. J nidus s-cvaiusoni Cab. 

 iSeebohm, Cat Birds Brit. Mus.. V, pp. 185 and 

 201), having- the cheeks and throat suffused with 

 pale rust yellow, but apparently it is not a spe- 

 cimen of var. aliciac (Baird), as this appears to 

 be larger. It would be better to consider this 

 an intermediate form. The coloration, wing; 

 formula, and measurements are the same as in 

 Seebohm (1. c. I and Giitke (Vog-elw. Helg^ol., p. 

 2,S1-2,=;2|. 



The marking's of the under side of the wing- 

 deserve mention in this specimen. Beg-inning; 

 with the fourth primary, all the other flig-ht 

 feathers bear on the basal half of the inner vane 

 a long-, sharply defined Isabella-colored spot. 

 The base of each wing- feather, as well as the 

 narrow band which separates the light spot 

 from the shaft, are brown. Taken tog-ether 

 these spots form a H^ht oblique band- similar, 

 as far as character of marking^s inclusive of the 

 wing- coverts is concerned, to Seebohm \s fig-ure 

 of the wing^ of (leocichla varia (1. c. p. 147|. Such 

 oblique bands on the under side of the wing-s 

 are also found in other true thrushes, but are 

 more defined here. 



Al. 9b mm., caud. ft7 mm., tars. 27 mm., culm. 

 1() mm. 



B. 



Notes. 



Ci..\ssiCAi, EnTtUsh Poems about Birds have 

 been selected recently, and the choice is of in- 

 terest. Professor Wallace Wood, of Columbia 

 University, asked Professor Edward Dowden to 

 name ten of the g-reatest little classics in poet- 

 ical literature, and from nine other critics he 

 asked for and received a larg-er selection. The 

 results of answers were turned over to the Neiv 

 )'o)k Ht'rald. and are published in the issue for 

 Sunday, December 1(). The poem which re- 

 ceived the g-reatest number of votes (8) was 

 Keat's "Ode to a Nig-hting-ale"; the next in 

 favor was Shelle^-'s "Ode to a Skylark", 

 which had 6 votes, as had also Coleridg:e"s 

 "Ancient Mariner". Mr. Richard Garnett, Li- 

 brarian of the British Museum, added to the odes 

 to birds Bryant's "Lines to a Waterfowl", and 

 John H. Ingram suplemented Browning's "The 

 Swan's nest", and Poe's "The Raven". Mar- 

 lowe's "Come with me and be my Love", fami- 

 liar to all Waltonians. received two votes. 



The Saee ok Oknithoi.ocicai. Works has 

 been very larg-e for some time past. Miss Lock- 

 wood, the Secretary of the Audubon Society, is 

 quoted, in the Sun for December 31, as saying- 

 that "within the last five years. New York and 

 Bost<in publishers alone have sold moi-e than 

 70,000 books on ornitholog-y for the use of young- 

 students". No further details are g^iven, how- 

 ever. 



The Revival of Fai.conkv is treated of in 

 the Spectator for December 16. It is remarked 

 that at Valkensvaard Heath [in the Netherlands] 

 during the autumn migration of this year, the 



Dutch hawk catchers were unable to take enough 

 falcons to meet the orders of their English and 

 French patrons". The increased interest of 

 late in Falconry and its utility' or rather effec- 

 tiveness are commented on. "It is no exaggf-e- 

 ration to say that the owner of a modest prop- 

 erty' of five hundred or six hundred acres could 

 take as much game on it with a sing-le (ioshawk 

 as he could kill with a gun". 



Hawks ark; Pkopf;rtv in England to a cer- 

 tain extent. According- to the Spectator. "the3' 

 have now two recent legal decisions in their 

 favor, by which they can claim the same rigfht 

 of protection that the trained carrier pigeon 

 does. In two instances when trained hawks 

 have been shot b^' persons who had good reason 

 to know that they were private property, the 

 shooter had to paA' heavily for the value of the 

 bird, which, thoug-h wild, has the (7////;///;;/ rei'cr- 

 tciidi. or desire (jf returning- to its owner, and 

 thus renounces its wild nature bv a voluntary 

 act". 



The Pkesent Pkicf: of a Tkained Hawk is 

 about three to four pounds 1,5 to 20 dollars. A 

 ver3' well trained one "is now valued at ten 

 pounds, so they are still one-third of the price 

 they were three hundred years ago". In the 

 times of James I. of England nearly three cen- 

 turies ago — "a good Goshawk was sold for 30 

 pounds". 



Exploration of the West Indies is now in 

 order. Two collecting parties from the U. S. 

 National Museum are expected to leave Wash- 



