THE OOLOQIST 



61 



places until it has decreased from 

 about 300 varieties to half the num- 

 ber. Ostrich, Emu, California Vulture, 

 Stormy Petrel, Goshawk, Golden Ori- 

 ole, and many others which I prized 

 highly have been destroyed or lost. 



While I have collected but a few 

 specimens in the past 25 years, I have 

 been a close observer of bird life. 



One morning recently while taking 

 ,1 "before breakfast" stroll I observed 

 migratory birds including Canada 

 Goose, Brant, Mallard, Sprig or Pin- 

 tail, Widgeon, and other ducks, which 

 I could not distinguish. But a sight 

 most pleasing to my eye was a bunch 

 of seven Prairie Chickens one male 

 and six hens. I have often heard the 

 "oom-boom-boom" of the male and oc- 

 casionally I saw one or two hens. 

 These birds have been on my farm 

 for the past three years. A pair of 

 Mecking birds, have also used a little 

 cedar in my front yard for a nesting 

 place three consecutive seasons. 



Charles D. Warner. 

 Almyra, Arkansas. 



John Burroughs 



All lovers of nature in America and 

 in fact almost throughout the world, 

 mourn the death of John Burroughs, 

 who was buried April 3rd, 1921, at 

 Roxbury, X. Y., exactly eighty-four 

 years after the day of his birth. He 

 was laid to rest at the home of his 

 birth. His bier was blasted out of a 

 huge boulder lying on the side of 

 Piock Mountain, upon which he played 

 as a boy, and later sat and mused as 

 a man, as he observed the birds and 

 enjoyed the wild flowers, and around 

 which in his youth he hunted the sly 

 fox. 



The burial service was simple. There 

 were a few short prayers followed by 

 the recitation of poems left to liter- 

 ature by other admirers of the hills 



and valleys. Some of the lines were 

 dedicated to Mr. Burroughs and one of 

 the poems read at the grave had been 

 written on the death of the naturalist 

 by Edwin Markham. 



When the coffin had been lowered 

 into a bed of green hemlock branches 

 and moss and flowers covered the 

 mound, the townsfolk and the visitors 

 began winding their way back into the 

 valley by twos and threes. The pur- 

 ple haze of dusk came down as a twi- 

 light mantel over the village and then 

 darkness fell, leaving John Burroughs 

 to abide forever in his own native 

 .'Oil. — From his home paper. 



H. H. Bailey 



Our friend, H. H. Bailey, formerly 

 of Norfolk, Virginia, now of Miami 

 Beach, Florida, is demonstrating in 

 his new home, his usual vim and pep, 

 in bird matters, which has character- 

 ized him through life. He just an- 

 nounces the establishment of a new 

 "Museum and Oological Park," which 

 it is expected will cost at least $250,- 

 000.00 and possibly more. 



It is to be located on five acres of 

 land in which a large lake is to be 

 dredged out for water fowl, and the 

 grounds are to be laid out and im- 

 proved as nearly to reproduce natural 

 surroundings for the various species 

 of deer, bear, wild cat, lynx, coons, 

 otter, opossum, weasel, muskrat, 

 rkunk, squirrels, etc., as possible. 



A flying cage "probably the largest 

 erected in America" will be installed 

 for the display of the larger water 

 birds, Flamingo, Heron, Cranes, etc. 

 A museum building will be erected, 

 thoroughly modern in every way, and 

 Florida fauna will be emphasized, in 

 all the Departments.' 

 all the Departments. — R.M.B, 



