lO 



THE OOLOGIST. 



tried with The Young Oologist and that 

 the publisher lost both his time and hun- 

 dreds of dollars. Our time is valuable 

 and money is scarce, consequently our 

 "experience." must not be repeated ; but 

 we would say to our friends that from the 

 day our subscription list, numbers 2,000 

 paid subscribers The Oologist will be a 

 monthly publication, and that if every 

 reader of this item will send in his sub- 

 scription, or if each one of our patrons will 

 subscribe and send one other subscription 

 at once, The Oologist will never again be 

 sent out as a bi-monthly publication. 



Special Notice to the subscribers of 

 The Young Oologist. — We want to have 

 each and every one of our old Y. O. 

 friends enrolled on our new subscription 

 book, and as we always endeavor to deal 

 fairly with all, we will give, in addition to 

 any premium oifered, to each of these old 

 friends who subscribed or renewed their 

 subscriptions for the Y. O between the 

 dates of September 1st, 1884, and 'August 

 1st, 1885, who will now help us by sub- 

 scribing for The Oologist before March 

 1st, an exchange notice of twenty-five or 

 less words. As the value of this notice and 

 the premium is over fifty cents, we are in 

 one sense making you a present of The 

 Oologist. This offer will never be re- 

 peated and is good until March 1st only. 



our engraving 

 or rather the plate in this number of the 

 Oologist, was not only loaned but one-half 

 of the whole number ( 6,000 ) required for 

 this edition was presented us, by one of 

 the Oologist's best friends, Mr. Oliver 

 Davie. This plate is one of those 

 given in the second edition of his most 

 valuable work, " Egg Check List and Key 

 to the Nests and Eggs of N. A. Birds." 

 The following description is also taken 

 from that work : 



No. 19. American Water Ouzel — cin- 

 CLUS mexicanus. This interesting bird 

 which has the aquatic habits of a duck and 

 the tilting movements of a sandpiper, in- 

 habits exclusively the mountainous portions 

 of North America west of the Mississippi 



from Alaska to Guatemala. It is never 

 found near still water, frequenting only 

 wild mountain streams, cascades, eddies 

 and swift currents. Tlie nest is variously 

 situated but always in a nook or crevice 

 near water, or shelving rocks or roots of 

 trees. It is a beautiful ball of soft green 

 moss about as large as a man's head, dome- 

 shaped, with a small round hole in one side 

 for an entrance ; within it is strongly 

 arched over and supported by twigs. 

 Plate I., frontispiece, gives a faithful rep- 

 resentation of one placed on a ledge of 

 rock. The eggs are usually three in num- 

 ber, dull white, unspotted, and measure 

 1.04 by .70. 



If you wish to aid us in giving your or- 

 ders and communications the earliest pos- 

 sible attention, and to avoid making mis- 

 takes, which sometimes will happen, care- 

 fully read the following and when writing 

 have each subject on a separate slip of 

 paper. 



1. Business or personal letters. 



3. Queries ( either to be answered by 

 mail or in the Oologist.) 



3. Anything to be printed in the Oolo- 

 gist, including "exchanges and wants," 

 advertisements, etc., each must be on a 

 separate slip and written on one side of the 

 paper only. 



4. Orders for bird's eggs. 



5. " " minerals. 



6. " " books, supplies, etc., etc. 



7. " " rubber stamps. 



8. Subscriptions for the Oologist. 



Sign your name and address in full at the 

 bottom or top of each slip. We always first 

 attend to orders sent as above suggested, 

 before trying to sort out " mixed-up " ones. 



Sammer Birds About Washington, D.C. 



As the bird life around this metropolis 

 has interested me, it occurs to me that 

 some of the readers of the Oologist might 

 care for a few notes about them. I am 

 struck with the absence of some which are 

 common farther North, as well as with the 

 presence of others not found there. The 

 robin, for instance, is not at all common 

 here during the breeding season. I have 

 heard but one song from him, I think, 



