THE OSPREY. 



37 



possess that gleaning nature characteristic of so 

 many members of his family, but seeks his food 

 upon and among the abundant decaying moss- 

 covered log's and stumps, which have been accu- 

 mulating here for ages, flitting from mie to 

 another, and extracting from them the insect 

 food constituting his daily fare. Here again we 

 must pause and comment upon his beauty. For 



what fairer picture could one imagine than a 

 Prothonotary clinging to a moss-covered cypress 

 knee, perhaps only a foot above the water, with 

 his head partly lowered and tilted as if gazing 

 and admiring the reflections of his brilliant 

 form in the enchanting scene mirrored beneath. 



To be Continu 



NESTING OF THE INCA DOVE IN RAMOS, STATE OF SAX LUIS POTOSI, MEXICO. 



By Josiah H. Clark, Paterson, N. J. 



The Inca Dove {Scardafella una) is a very 

 common permanent resident in the western part 

 of the State of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. It 

 seems to be more a bird of the town than of the 

 country, and the corrals seems to be its favorite 

 place of resort. The females begin nesting here 

 (which isatan altitude of about 8,000 feet) the 

 last week of March, the young, one or two in 

 number, leaving the nest about April 23, and by 

 the first of May they will have their second se1 

 of eggs. They usually rear three broods, if not 

 more, a season. 



When nesting they are very tame, and fre- 

 quently will almost permit you to place your 

 hand on them before leaving the nest; often they 

 will raise up while on the nest, permitting you 



to see the eggs, setting down again as you start 

 ti ' gi i away. 



Their favorite nesting place here is on the 

 turned up leaf of a Nopalo Cactus; on which they 

 place a few loose sticks, and line the nest with a 

 few grasses, for the second brood they use the 

 same nesf only adding more of the grasses or 

 lining material. 



The eggs are white, and elliptical oval in 

 shape, tine sei of eggs taken May 4. 1899 (this 

 was their second set for the year) measures 

 ."ii .6Sand.89 .65inch. Nest five feet from 

 ground. 



Another set taken June 1, 18' m, measures .86 -|- 

 .63 and .so .65 inch. 



WILLIAM SWAINSON AND HIS TIMES.— VII. 

 By Theodorb Gill. Washington, D. C. 

 ( Continued from Vol. V, page io.) 



Main letters passed between Swainson and 

 Richardson while the volume was being written 

 and especially while it was passing through the 

 press. Most, if not all. of Richardson's letters 

 to Swainson wen preserved by the latter and 

 are in the Swainson correspondence purchased 

 by the Linnean Society of London in l"i 0. 

 The first of Richardson's letters in the collec- 

 tion is dated Chatham. IS Juno. 1829, ami the 

 last relative to the Fauna Boreali-Americana, 

 London. 14 October, 1831, the time thus inter- 

 vening being about two years and a third. 

 Swainson seems to have been somewhat urgent 

 for payment; the publisher for the government, 

 John Murray, "'complains of tin- expenses" to 

 Richardson and even writes a couple of letter 



direct to Swainson |7 and 17 Dec. 182 i 



business matters. Richardson frequently urges 

 greater expedition on the work: he also early 

 (8 July. 1829) complains that he "is scarcely 

 reimbursed for his own" but later (24 Sept., 

 LS2'i| "sends Swainson £61;" he then was pre- 

 paring his descriptions of the birds which were 

 at first very detailed. This detail was so great 

 that Swainson remarks against it and Richard- 

 son (24 Oct., 1830) promises to take his "advice 

 and abridg'e his descriptions.'" Richardson is 

 very courteous and even deferential to Swain- 

 son: he confesses that he is "not versanl in the 

 mode of forming Latin names from the Greek" 

 and applies to Swainson for information! 



Swainson as an adviser in the formation of 

 Latin or Greco-Latin names reminds one forci- 



bly of the parable of the blind leading the blind. 

 If Richardson did not know then, he subse- 

 quently developed considerable aptitude in the 

 formation of such names and proposed many 



1 ones. In his dealings with Swainson, 



however, he not only defers to him, but at last 

 (13 April, 1831) we find him "generously offer- 

 iug to S. to give S's name as the authority for 

 all new species". In his last letter of the period 

 (14 Oct . 1831) we find that he declares "The 

 Birds of the Faun. Bor.-Am. all but completed. " 



The only other letter from Richardson to 

 Swainson preserved by the latter was written 

 nearly ten years later (IS Feb. 1840). on the eve 

 of Swainson's departure from his native land: 

 in this he "excuses himself for not adopting S's 

 generic names, and bids him farewell."'* 



Swainson evidently appreciated the liberality 

 of Richardson's treatment and was very compli- 

 mentary to him. In his notice of Richardson in 

 his "bibliography of zoology" (Taxidermy, etc., 

 p. 30Si he even went to the extreme of falsifying 

 the record and referred to the volume of the 

 "Fauna Boreali-Americana" on which they were 

 collaborators as "The Birds, by Richardson and 

 Swainson;" he also records in the ornitholo- 

 gical bibliography of his "Natural History and 

 Classification of Birds," |i. 218,) the same work 

 as by "Richardson and Swainson," although 

 he gives the proper sequence in the detailed title. 

 In the latter work (i, 218) he likewise notes that 

 "the whole of the descriptions, and nearly all 

 the synonymes, are entirely from the pen of Dr. 



*The quotations in this section are. of the notice of Swainson's letters by Doctor Gunther in the Proceedings of the 

 Linnean Society of London 112th section (p, 59-D3,) and not of Richardson's own words. 



