THE OOLOGIST. 



39 



low bird to Yellow Warbler, Black and 

 Yellow again becomes the Magnolia War 

 bier of Wilson, while the afHicted White- 

 browed Yellow-throated Warbler is now 

 relieved by being Sycamore Warbler, the 

 Redpoll becomes Palm Warbler, the Small- 

 billed Water Thrush is plain Water 

 Thrush, and the Large-billed species is 

 Louisiana Water Thrush ; the Black- 

 capped Yellow Warbler is fittinglj- called 

 Wilson's Warbler, and the Canada Fl}'- 

 catching is Canadian Warbler ; European 

 Titlark is correctly called Meadow Pipit, 

 and Water Ouzel is American Dipper ; the 

 California and Texan Bewick Wrens are 

 respectively changed to Vigors' and Baird's 

 Wren, Western House Wren is Parkman's 

 Wren ; the White-bellied Xuthatch will 

 not offend the fastidious now, as it is 

 Whitebreasted Nuthatch, Black-capped 

 Chickadee is simply "Chickadee," Least 

 Tit is Bush Tit, Yellow-headed Tit is Ver- 

 din, and the Crissal Thrasher is surely an 

 improvement on the Rufous-vented 

 Thrasher. 



The Hypothethical list already alluded 

 to, contains ^6 species, and the writer has 

 failed to find in addition, these ; the Eu- 

 ropean Merlin, Hybrid Woodpecker, Isa- 

 bella Sparrow Hawk, Mexican Boat 

 Grackle, Tule Wren, Western Warbling 

 Vireo, Eared Grebe, European Kestril and 

 Small-billed Creeper, and there are un- 

 doubtedly others which escaped detection. 

 The Texan Orchard Oriole (while not in 

 Bidgway's 1881) is reduced, the two birds 

 being identical. The English Sparrow is 

 not mentioned at all, but he will keep on 

 increasing and multiplying notwithstand- 

 ing the snub. The Rapacious Birds occupy 

 the same relative position as in Mr. Ridg- 

 way's Nomenclature, and the Road Run- 

 ner, Mangrove, Yellow-billed and Black- 

 billed Cuckoo's retain their numbers in the 

 list (?. e., 385, 386, 387, and 388,) a distinc- 

 tion which is altogether fortuitous, and 

 which is enjoj^ed bj' no other species. 



The total number of ^Ir. Ridgway's list 

 is 764 species and 160 subspecies, making 

 924. H no mistake has been made by the 

 writer the A. O. L'. Check List enumerates 



768 species, and 182 subspecies, a total of 

 950. 



The appearance of this new List will 

 mark an epoch in American Ornithology, 

 and for the sake of uniformity, its adap- 

 tion by students and collectors cannot be 

 too strongly urged. 



H.\RRY G. Parker, 

 Chester, Penn. 



April 4, 1886. 



Red Crossbills, Pine Grosbeaks. 



While on a collecting tour a year ago 

 last fall, I came across a flock of birds 

 which at first sight I thought were Yellow 

 Birds, and as I did not have a good .speci- 

 men of that species, shot one. What was 

 my surprise on picking it up, to find in- 

 stead of a Yellow Bird, a female American 

 Red Crossbill. 



On discovering this fact, I immediately 

 followed the flock which had not flown 

 far, and procured two more specimens. 

 There were about fifteen birds in the flock, 

 all of which were females. The}' seemed 

 to be very tame so that when I shot one 

 out of the flock, (with a sling shot) the 

 others would fly to the next tree and im- 

 mediately become wholly engaged opening- 

 the cones of the pine trees, the seeds of 

 which they fed on. The next day I saw 

 the same flock several times but had not 

 yet seen any males. It was not until four 

 days of hunting that I found a flock of 

 male birds. When I first saw them they 

 were in the top of a very tall oak tree, in 

 the middle of a vacant lot. They saw me 

 before I got within one hundred yards of 

 the tree and all flew. They kept flying 

 until they were out of sight. The next 

 time I saw any males they were in some 

 pine trees near a brook. I crept up very 

 close before they noticed me and shot one 

 just as they started to Hy. This is the 

 only specimen of a male bird I got. Al- 

 though I saw several other flocks, they all 

 seemed to be very shy and flew before I 

 could get within shooting distance. 



The same season I shot several female 

 Canada Pine Grosbeaks, but did not see 

 any males, although I was told that they 

 had been seen in the town. 



H. Trippett. 



Montclair, N. J. 



