142 



THE OSPREY. 



)'et the mood, thoiig-h a sweet, was also, as the 

 poet expresses it, a pensive one: it was steeped 

 in the happy melancholy stni<;- so truthfullv by 

 an elder bard, who also must have entered 

 deeply into the feeling-. 



"When I sue musing all alone, 

 Thinking of divers things forelcnowne, — 

 When I builde castles in the air, 

 Voide of sorrow and voide of care. 

 Pleasing myself with phantasms sweet. — 

 Methinks the time runs very fleet; 

 All my joys to this are follie; — 

 None soe sweet as nieianchollie. 



Vhen to myself I sit and smile. 

 With pleasing thoughts the time beguile, 

 By a brook side or wood soe green, 

 I'nheard, unsought for, and unseen, 

 A thousand pleasures doe me blesse. 

 And crowne my soul with happiness: 

 All my joys to this are follie: — 

 None soe sweet :.s nieianchollie." 



"When I remember how my happiness was en- 

 hanced b^' every little bird that burst out into 

 sudden song- among- the trees, and then as sud- 

 denly became silent, or by every bright-scaled 

 tish that went darting throug-h the topaz-colored 

 depths of the water, or rose for the moment 



over its calm surface, — how the blue sheets of 

 hyacinths that carpeted the opening's in the 

 wood delig-hted me, and every golden-tinted 

 cloud that gleamed over the setting- sun, and 

 threw its bright flash on the river, seemed to 

 inform the heart of a heaven beyond, — I marvel, 

 in looking- over the scraps of verse produced at 

 the time, to find how little of the sentiment in 

 which I .so luxuriated, or of the nature which I 

 so enjoyed, found their way into them. But 

 what Wordsworth well terms "the accomplish- 

 ment of verse," given to but few, is as distinct 

 from the poetic faculty vouchsafed to many, as 

 the ability of relishing- exquisite music is dis- 

 tinct from the power of producing it. Nay, there 

 are cases in which the "faculty" may be very 

 high, and yet the "accomplishment" compara- 

 tively low, or altog-ether a\vanting-." 



W^e wish for our readers during- the coming 

 season the same pleasures of communion with 

 Nature as Miller knew and as happily we may 

 know still. 



Literature. 



The Bikd.s ok South Africa. By Arthur C. 

 Stark, M. B. Vol. i.— London: Porter. 1900. 

 (The Fauna of South Africa. Edited by W. L. 

 Sclater.) 8vo. The first volume of the Fauna 

 of South Africa, prepared by the late Dr. Stark, 

 (whose death was recoi-ded in the Jantiarj- num- 

 ber of the Osi'KEv) has been published and treats 

 of the first half of the Passerine birds. 



A Key of the Bikd.s of Austkaija and Tas- 

 M.'^Ni.'V., wnth their Geographical Distribution in 

 Australia. By Robert Hall.— Melbourne and 

 London. 1809. [8vo.]. The birds f)f the region 

 indicated number 767 and are arranged according- 

 to the S3'stem adopted for the Catalogue of Birds 

 in the collection of the British Museum. Au.s- 



tralia is divided, with Professor Spencer, into 

 three main divisions or "sub-reg'ions" named 

 Fyrean. Torresian and Bassian. 



NoTK.s ON THE Birds observed dcKixo 

 Three Visits to Kamchatka in 1896 and 1897 

 by Mr. G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, one of 

 the British Seal Commissioners, have been pub- 

 lished in the Ibis. He refers to Dr. Stejneger's 

 "Results of Ornithological Explorations in the 

 Commander Islands and Kamtschatka" (1885) as 

 "•the latest and most complete account of the 

 birds of Kamchatka"" that had been previously 

 published. The Nutcracker of the reg-ion has 

 been described as new — Niwifra^a kaiiir/iai- 

 keiisis. 



Notes. 



An Ornithological Trip to Pokto Rico has 

 been made by Drs. Stejneger and Richmond. 

 They left here early in February for Porto 

 Rico, and returned to Washington about the first 

 of May. Satisfactory collections were made in 

 several parts of the Islands, and on the neigh- 

 boring- small island of Vieques. Owing to the 

 dense population and lack of forest areas (and 

 possibh^ to the hurricane) many of the native 

 species of birds were found to be scarce. Eight 

 specimens were obtained of iVesospiuiiiis specii- 

 liferiis, a rare plain finch-like Tanag-er des- 

 cribed by Lawrence in 187.=i, (Ibis, p. 383, pi. 9,; 

 of which the National Museum had previously 

 only one specimen (the type). The species 

 seems to live in flocks on the mountains. 



A Trip to Cuba was beg-un at nearly the same 

 tinip as that of Drs. Stejneger and Richmond by 



Messrs. Palmer and Riley. They went to the 

 %vestern part, and are still in the field. They 

 have sent in good series of .several rare birds. 



Eggs of the California Condor are wanted. 

 Herbert M. Beesley of Bournemouth, England, 

 a collector for Hon. Walter Rothschild, is trying- 

 to get for the museum at Tring- an eg-g- of the 

 bird. There are said to be .several oolog-ists who 

 are ready to pay $1,000 to $1,200 for an egg-? 

 The last recorded" sale of an eg-g was in 1887. 



A New E'u; of the Great Auk has been 

 found. Its discovery, according to a note in the 

 Ibis for April (p. 369), "brought the number of 

 known egfgs of the Great Auk to 72." The 

 history is to be given in a future number of the 

 Ibis, and the egg itself was consigned to Henry 

 Stevens for sale. 



