August, 1893.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



119 



Brief Notes, Correspondence and 

 Clippings. 



A boiled deer's tongue is as fine a morsel 

 as one could ask for. Try one. ^Ve are 

 having them just now. 



Several cub Bears, quite small, have been 

 noted in the Boston market in November. 



We understand that the society of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union had a meet- 

 ing recently in the vicinity of Boston. 



A. E. Kibbe, Mayville, N.Y., notes the tak- 

 ing of a set of eggs of Red-eyed Vireo ; 

 unmarked, pure white. 



A large White Owl was seen near the barn- 

 yard at Wonson Farm, East Gloucester, Mass., 

 Nov. 1 7 . One of the boys shot at him twice, 

 but failed to s:et him. 



A little cyanide of potassium put on the 

 tongue of an animal causes almost instant 

 death. It is the most humane way of killing. 



Knowing that you are interested in any 

 new discoveries in taxidermy, I will describe 

 a skin just received. .\ friend in Illinois, a 

 physician, who has imported some Indian 

 game birds, sent me the skin of a black par- 

 tridge, saying their druggist had tried to 

 mount it and hoped it might be of use to 

 me. The legs had been cut off at the knees, 

 head unskinned and eyes left in. Then a 

 piece of stiff brass wire had been run through 

 the skull, but only reached half way down to 

 tail and was perfectly loose ; then some wads 

 of cotton had been filled into the neck, then 

 a wire had been run through base of tail and 

 fastened into a medium sized cork stopper, 

 which had nothing else attached to it. Then 

 a stiff brass wire had been run through each 

 leg and cut off even with sole of foot ; a 

 little cotton stuffed into each thigh round 

 the wire, and neither fastened to anything 

 else or even bent. No stuffing of any kind 



was put in and body left open. No eyes 

 except the natural ones ; one leg and one 

 wing were off when it reached me. In spite 

 of all this I have made quite a bird of it, but 

 for a mounted bird it beat all I ever saw. 



— //. 



We continually receive letters from part- 

 ies asking for a receipt for tanning skins. 

 We have tried several and have not found 

 them practical. We do know that " Tan- 

 nine " will do the work. 



We received during the summer two lob- 

 sters, one weighing 17 and the other 19 

 pounds. Both were taken at Cape Cod. 

 Mounted under convex glasses, they made a 

 striking appearance. 



The Wood Thrush. 



From the time that our great statesman 

 and ex-president, Thomas Jefferson, who 

 " followed this bird for miles without ever 

 but once getting a good view of it," and who, 

 "for twenty years, interested the young 

 sportsmen of his neighborhood to shoot him 

 one," down to the present date of advanced 

 ornithology and oology, much has been said 

 and written in regard to this favorite bird. 



His beautiful song and habits and their 

 nests and eggs have been so often described, 

 that it seems almost impossible to say any- 

 thing further in regard to this bird which 

 would be interesting, especially to the older 

 students of ornithology and oology ; and 

 yet I feel it my duty to make one correction 

 in regard to the material of which its nest 

 is composed, for the benefit of the younger 

 students and more especially for some of the 

 older ones, who study more from books than 

 from Nature. 



Davie, in his second edition of " Nests 

 and Eggs of North American Birds," says 

 that its nest is " composed of leaves and 

 grasses, with a layer of mud ; " and in his third 

 edition, the same author says : " On the out- 

 side, it is composed of leaves, grasses, and 



