ORNITHOLOGIST 



— AND — 



OOLOGIST. 



$1.00 per 

 Annum. 



Joseph M. Wade, Editor and Publisher. 

 EstabliKlied, Marcli, 1875. 



Single Copy, 

 10 Cents. 



VOL. VII. 



NORWICH, CONN., SEPTEMBER, 1882. 



NO. 20. 



Gleanings from Bendire's Letters. 



From letters received from Capt. Chas. E. 

 Bendire, at Fort Walla Walla. W. T., from 

 time to time, we make the following ex- 

 tracts, knowing from their value that they 

 will iuterest our many readers : 



Nov. i). 1H81. he took a specimen of the 

 Snowy Owl {N'yctea scandiaca,) which, as 

 far as he knows, is the first properly au- 

 thenticated Pacific coast record. He saw 

 a specimen on two or three occasions near 

 Camp Harney. (~)regon. but failed to get 

 any, and at Walla Walla, in 1880. saw part 

 of one. 



-Tan. 9. I88"i. he mentions seeing another 

 specimen, and the party who brought it in 

 reported seeing several others at the time 

 he captured this one. The Captain thinks 

 they may be found as common on the west 

 coast as far south as Walla Walla as they 

 are in the east — particularly when the dif- 

 ference in climate in the same latitude is 

 taken into consideration — the climate in 

 Winter where he is stationed being (com- 

 parable with that of Vii'ginia and North 

 Carolina. 



Nov. 11), 1881, the first Bohemian Wax- 

 wings (Anipelis ffarruhcs) were taken, and 

 during tlie last week of the same month a 

 fine Arctic Blue Bird (Sitilia arcticn) was 

 killed. Up to this date the weather had 

 not been cold, although a little snow had 

 fallen. Dec. 18. he secured fourteen Wax- 

 wings, and about the middle of January. 

 1882. a dozen more. Soon after this they 

 left the immediate vicinity of the Fort. 



Under the date of Dec. 1. 1881. lie 

 savs : ■■ It is rciiru'kalilc Imw coiiiinoli the 



Great^horned Owls are this season. I 

 have already skinned ten during the past 

 two mouths and no two are exactly alike. 

 With perhaps two exceptions they are, I 

 think, referable to the SdlunttHs form. I 

 believe we are to have a severe Winter and 

 that these birds come down from the 

 mountains : for surely they don't all breed 

 about here, or else I would have become 

 acquainted with them during the breeding 

 season. Nearly all were excessively fat 

 as were the other species belonging to this 

 family that I have taken to date, viz. : the 

 Long-e?xred and Kennicott's. Most of the 

 Khort-eared, however, were very poor, 

 probably migrants from the high north, 

 like the Snowy Owl. which was also very 

 ill-conditioned. We have about six inches 

 of snow, but the weather is pleasant." 



Up to March 9, 1882. he had not taken 

 any eggs of the Great-horned Owl and 

 hardly expected to, having killed not less 

 than sixteen. From what he has been 

 told, he is almost inclined to believe that 

 some of these birds occasionally breed in 

 holes in the ground, and if true, it would 

 account for his not finding any of their 

 nests about the Fort heretofore. 



During December, a specimen of Scops 

 (isio Kctniirotti was taken under rather 

 peculiar circumstances. He says : •• I was 

 going home from dinner at 5 p. m.. as I 

 live in another house in the garrison about 

 one hundred and fifty yards from my quar- 

 ters — in front of the houses we have a 

 row of trees growing, some of them quite 

 large locusts and box elders. On one of 

 the latter and comjiaratively low I saw one 

 of these Owls. V)ut how to get him under 



