18.4 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 16-No. 12 



The whale giv(3s bii-th but to one offspring, 

 ■which is said to be about twelve feet long. 



Theie are about fifty species of Toucans. 

 Their food consists mainly of fruit. They 

 are found only in the New World. The 

 Hornbills of tlie Old World are of another 

 order. 



Mr. H. A. Pitman of Somerville has just re- 

 turned from a successful hunt. He secured a 

 fine Bull Moose. 



To the members of the Fish and (iame 

 Association: In your charges against 

 the commissioners you had better droj) 

 the matter of continued extermination of in- 

 sectivorous birds in this state for millinery 

 purposes. There is nothing of the kind going 

 on. and you only show a lack of ordinary 

 observalion of facts. Two of the commis- 

 sioners, without question, should have been 

 bounced long since, but just let the song-bird 

 hue and cry drop. 



In captivity the Ostiieh will continue to 

 lay like the common hen when the eggs are 

 taken away. They will re.ach from sixty or 

 seventy in number. 



The Rhea or South American Ostrich lays 

 from ten to tvv'enty eggs. They are about tlie 

 size of the Emu, and of a pale greenish tint. 



The Moas, an extinct bird of Australia and 

 New Guinea, were the largest birds; they stood 

 twelve to fourteen feet high and laid eggs ten 

 inches long by seven inches wide. Tliey were 

 exterminated by the natives but we have never 

 seen it alleged that it was done for millinery 

 purposes. 



The Great Auk is supposed to have been 

 finally exterminated in 1844. The law list in 

 1884 by Prof. W. Blasius gives 70 authenticated 

 skins or stuffed birds and OS eggs as being in 

 existence, and only five are in American 

 Museums. One presented to a New York mu- 

 seum is' said to have been purchased by tlie 

 donor at a. cost of .s(;:i."). Tlie bird <-oidd not 

 fly while in this cruel world, being wingless. 

 liow it will get about in the other world we 

 canuot say; Its memory is perpetuated at a 

 great expense by the .\merican Ornithological 

 Union. 



It is claimed that a great deal of large 

 game is killed in the state of Maine by Cana- 

 dians, who cross the line and pay no attention 

 to the state laws. 



It is estimated that the sportsmen from 

 :Maine to New .lersey during the past season 

 killed 1,879,048, 702, .")1»1, 807 birds, mostly Peeps, 

 but they were not for millinery purposes. 



The Labrador Duck is well known to our 

 readers as being extinct. The notes from Mr. 

 Dutcher, to which we referred in a recent 

 number, are well worth a place in the library. 

 The number tliat lu' gives as being on record 

 are about one-half that of the Great .\uk. We 

 have been asked the value. They are not for 

 sale, but we would name *7.")0 as the value of a 

 perfect specimen, eitlu'r mounted or in a skin. 

 Any orders received will be booked and tilled 

 as we obtain them. 



The Common Guinea Hen is a native of 

 Africa. There they are found in large flocks. 

 Peacocks are from India and Ceylon. 

 They also go in large flocks. The beautiful, 

 long feathers with tlie eyes, usually known as 

 the tail feathers, are tlie upper coverts. Vast 

 quantities of them are sent from India to the 

 London market. 



The circus gave Tecumseh, Ala., excitement 

 enough on .Sunday to last it for a year. Fore- 

 paugh's show travelled on four trains. As it 

 is against the (ieorgia law to run through the 

 state on ISunday, it was decided to stop at Te- 

 cumseh and feed the animals and rest. At all 

 the stations there were large crowds, and at 

 Tecumseh there were several hundred when 

 the last train approached. As it was slowing 

 down one of the ferocious lions managed to 

 tear olf the door of its cage. Hector, which 

 was the brute's name, thrust his head out 

 lighl in the faces of a jjfoup of negroes who 

 were standing on the ijihitform. They could 

 not have been worse scared if the Evil One, 

 who was thrown over the battlements of 

 heaven and was falling ail day till dewy eve, 

 had dropped down among them. 



Hector made a leap, with open mouth, into 

 the crowd. Such a scattering and sucli a 

 yelling were never seen or heard in Alabama. 

 Some of the negroes fell down in .abject fright, 

 but the most of them struck oft for home 

 on a hard run. A dozen tried to climb tele- 

 graph poles. One man sprang down a well. 

 Hector lit on his feet, but rolled over and over. 

 When he got up there was hardly a man, woman 

 or child within fifty yards. 



One woman, though, who had fainted, was 

 Iving near the lion. With one bound he was on 

 lier. his ugly teeth showing and his tongue 

 rolling out. The people who were looking 

 on were horrified. The tamer was along way 

 off. and there was no one near with a pistol 

 or rifle. To attempt to rescue her would be 

 almost certain death. 



To the astonishment of every one the beast, 

 instead of inangling the womnn, simply sniffed 

 the body, turned it over with his paws, and, 

 after eveing it snspiciouslv. walked off 

 leisurely. He thouglit that the woman was 

 dead. 



Hector was recaptured and rei-aged without 

 trouble. — .Vthmta Constitution. 



In the early part of October. Mr. W. A. 

 Purcell. t.axiderniist of Halifax, N. S., obtained 

 a Crow (C. americaniis) which ha<l one of its 

 tail-feathers pure white, while the others were 

 of the normal color. About the 14th of the 

 same month a Snowflake (P. riirrdiis} was shot 

 near Halifax, — .an early date for the bird to be 

 ill tliat locality. 



On .lime ")tli of this year Mr. Harry Piers, 

 of ll.alifax, N. S., obtained the nest and eggs 

 of the Winter Wren (T. hieiiinUs), at Spryfield, 

 not far from the above city. It contained six 

 egsxs and was built in wet moss clothing the 

 si^Fc of a granite rock, embedded in a bank a 

 few feet from the shore of the liocking-stone 

 (Kidston's) Lake. It was fully identified. 



