174 



THE OSPREY. 



the enforcement of protective rules in a region 

 like Central Africa. Still the conference ac- 

 complished a g-ood deal, the most promising- 

 action taken, perhaps, being the establishment 

 of a zone extending from Timbvictoo to the 

 Zambesi, and from sea to sea, within which all 

 the powers concerned promised to do what they 

 could toward stopping the reckless slaughter of 

 animals, and especially of elephants, that is 

 now going- on. As foundation for these efforts 

 the fauna of the district was divided into classes 

 ranging from creatures which, on account of 

 their utilty as scavengers, their defenselessness, 

 or their scarcity, are not to be killed at all if it 

 can be prevented, through those of particular 

 commercial or food value, of which the females 

 and immature males are not to be hunted, to a 

 few dangerous or destructive species, which 

 may be shot without restriction. As the most 

 effective means of protecting the elephants, it 

 was sug-gested to confiscate at the coast ship- 

 ping points all tusks weighing less than five 

 kilograms, but justifiable doubt was expressed 

 as to the practicability of a measure so drastic 

 as this. The meeting has been much discussed 

 in the English and Continental press, and every- 

 bod)' agrees that its objects were admirable, but 

 the chances are that the advance of civilization 

 in South Africa will, as elsewhere, be fatal to 

 wild beasts and wild men. This world is too 

 small for them nowadaj's. " — Exchange. 



A Proposition of the Millinery Mer- 

 chants' Protective Association of America 

 has been made to the various Audubon Societies 

 to cease killing or buying any North American 

 birds, except such as are edible and killed in 

 season, if the societies will undertake not to in- 

 terfei-e with the use of those birds or with skins 

 imported from other countries. 



'•The Largest Bird Cage ever Bi^lt" has 

 been completed for the Zoological Garden of 

 New York. It is 170 feet long, 72 feet wide, and 

 7o feet hig^h. The inclosing material is one and 

 a half inch mesh wire. There are now about 80 

 birds in it, but it is proposed to keep about 250 

 in it. 



A New Species of Petrel and a New Gull 

 have been discovered in the Hawaiian Island of 

 Kauai. 



The Greatest Price for a Great Auk's 

 Egg was realized at a sale in June, at Stevens's 

 auction rooms in London. 315 guineas was the 

 price paid for what has been described as "the 

 finest specimen known of a special type of mark- 

 ing." The highest sum previously obtained 

 had been 300 guineas. Another &^^ sold on the 

 same day realized only 180 guineas. 



Fearlessness of Swallows has been noticed 

 in Tlie Spectator by Mary Hermione Dawkins. 

 "It is possible that the following facts may in- 

 terest the bird-loving readers of the Spectator. 

 Last year, at my country place — Wilcote, in Ox- 

 fordshire—a pair of Swallows made 'their nest 

 against the curtain-pole /;/ my housemaid's bed- 

 room. It is a room always occupied by her. 

 and in and out of which the other housemaids 



constantly go and come. The birds reared 

 seven young ones, and they used to sit in a 

 row on the picture frames, and on the screens 

 close to the housemaid's bed and work-table, 

 twittering. Just before they migrated, the^' 

 fiew in two or three times, but used to sit in a 

 row on the I'oof close by, and no longer roosted 

 on the curtain-pole. I am happy to say that 

 this year the pair returned, began busilj' re- 

 pairing their old nest, and were absolutely 

 fearless." 



A Rusty Grackle [Scolecop/iagus caroli- 

 niis) killed near Cardiff, Wales, October 

 4tth, 1881, has been portrayed in a photog-raphic 

 plate in the "Report and Transactions, vol. 

 xxxi," of the Cardiff" Naturalists' Societj'. The 

 specimen is in the Cardiff' Museum. "It was 

 brought to Mr. Drane in the flesh the same day 

 it was shot" and "its plumage was in perfect 

 condition, and showed no sign of cotifinement 

 in a cage". 



Vocal Imitation by the Blackbird of Eng- 

 land, closely related to the American Robin, has 

 been recorded by Mr. J. A. Fry, in 7^tie .Spectator. 

 "A Blackbird of Upton Village, Berkshire, has 

 given evidence of a quality supposed to belong 

 only to the caged and trained one, — the faculty 

 of imitation of other songs and sounds than its 

 own; and as such an accomplishment must be 

 of interest to the naturalist, perhaj)s the .Spec- 

 tator wouM not think its narrative unworthy of 

 its pages. A Blackbird native of the place has 

 surprised us lately b^' adding to his song, and 

 with much apparent self-satisfaction, four notes 

 from the song, "Merrily Danced the Quaker's 

 Wife," always the same and broken off" abruptly, 

 and this copied from a capti\-e parakeet in a 

 neighbor's g-arden, hung outside for its health 

 and pleasure, and trained in its own art 

 of imitation and constantly exercising its 

 acquisition, but renouncing it immediatel3' 

 upon perception of the theft. The special in- 

 terest in this is that it is voluntary acquisition; 

 no training, no teaching, no capture, no dark 

 cage, but a wild Blackbird following its own 

 pleasure, and suggesting faculty in the bird 

 beyond what has been attributed to it, and of 

 necessity interesting to the naturalise or lover 

 of birds, their songs, and their ways". 



Colonization of Crows in Washington, 

 D. C, has been greater this year than ever 

 before — in late years at least. They have nested 

 in various public parks, especially the Smith- 

 sonian grounds and Lafayette square. The 

 latter, faced by the Presidential mansion on the 

 south side and the residence of the Secretary- of 

 State (Mr. Hay) on the north, is an assembly 

 place of the Crows in the mornii:g, and their 

 earh' cawing has been so offensive that the aid 

 of the police authorities has been invoked to 

 abate the nuisance. The birds are Fish-crows. 



The New Bird of Paradise referred to in 

 the OSPREV for May has been described by Mr. 

 Kolla P. Currie in the Proceedings of the U. S. 

 National Museum (xxii, 497-499, pi. 17) under the 

 name Cicinnnrus lyogyrus or Crimson Bird of 



