March, 1892.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



39 



A Fidmarus glacialls was picked up quite 

 weak, apparently exhausted, in this locality 

 early in December, Bergon County, N. J., 

 being' a long way from the scsa. The bird was 

 six miles west of the Hudson River. East, 

 between this river and the ocean, is the 

 widest part of Long Island. Just previous to 

 finding him the weather had been very stormy 

 on the Atlantic. Henry Hales. 



A Dip into the January O. & O. 



I iloirt like the shot method, "according to 

 Hoyle,'' of removing the placenta from a 

 much incubated egg. A stream of water 

 sharply driven obliquely into the drill-hole, 

 and a vigorous shaking of the egg, will, espec- 

 ially if faitlifully repeated, enable one to blow 

 the placenta out with the rinsing water. 



Nobody has touched, as yet, the bottom 

 mark as to latest normal nesting date of the 

 liobvvhite, — not even your reporter from 

 Kansas. Last autumn, while gathering 

 apples with a friend in his orchard, about thg 

 middle of October, my friend told me that, 

 the week previous, while some ladies who had 

 driven into the orchard with a carriage were 

 gathering apples, their horse stepped upon 

 and crushed a nest full of Quail's eggs, and 

 that he did not consider this late nesting as 

 unusual. (But the readers of the O. & O. 

 must have exact dates : my friend will inves- 

 tigate this matter, accurately, in tiie autumn 

 of 1892.) 



About plumage of the Mallard Drake: does 

 not everybody know that the "green wing- 

 patch " is constant with both sexes in all 

 plumages'? The Drake does not alv^aijs, at 

 least, don his bachelor coat in May, else the 

 expression " breeding plumage " is a misnomer. 

 I have seen the drakes in full plumage as far 

 south as Central Kansas, as late as the middle 

 of June. 



Tiie moult of the summer plumage is really 

 710^ a moult but a chromatic change, such 

 as certain hares and Ptarmigans undergo. 

 Hence, the effect is often "patchy," as often 

 in the case of hares. This effect is the most 

 noticeable on the head and neck, which are 

 the last parts to change. I have heads, pre- 

 served for the study of these very conditions, 

 the birds being taken in Kansas as late as 

 November. At that date and in that locality 

 tlie proportion of perfect male plumages, 

 among the male birds, was from one-third to 

 one-fourth, roughly speaking. In some heads 

 tiie green feathers are generally diffused, in 



others distributed in patches, none of them 

 having a "budding" appearance. Of all this, 

 more later. 



A gentleman who kept a pair of American 

 Goldfinches in confinement lately told me that 

 the color of the plumage turned, in the spring, 

 from drab-olive to golden yellow, in less than 

 a week. Perhaps these changes have much in 

 common; though the age of the Mallard 

 Drake is certainly an important factor. 



P. B. Peabody. 



The Western Robin and Varied 

 Thrush, 



Of the different varieties of the birds of east- 

 ern Nortli America which are included in the 

 avifauna of British Columbia, none are more 

 conspicuous than the Robin {Merula migratoria 

 prophiqua). It is found in all the valleys of 

 that " Sea of Mountains," and I noticed it when 

 passing through "the Rockies," east of the 

 Columbia River, and as common at Port Kells, 

 Fort Langley and other localities on the lower 

 Frazer, where I was informed it was, resident 

 throughout the year, so that no notes needed 

 to be taken regarding its migratory move- 

 ments, but I did not notice it at Vancouver 

 city, nor down the Straits of Georgia; it was 

 common at Victoria, but not again observed 

 on my southward voyage and inland rambles 

 until some miles east of Seattle. 



Why it is distinguished as a different species, 

 or even variety of the Merula, I could not 

 determine from what observations I was able 

 to male regarding it. The same drab plum- 

 age of the upper parts, the same reddish 

 breast, and ashy undergarb that characterizes 

 the Robin uf Ontario is noticeable in this bird 

 of the sunset land, as are also its song and 

 other notes, as well as its general modes of 

 action, nesting habits, and the number and 

 color of its eggs. A comparison, however, of 

 the western forms and those of the east may 

 establish the facts that the former is a little 

 larger in size and the plumage on the back 

 somewhat darker in hue than the latter 

 species, and since my return I notice that the 

 specimens of the eggs of the western species 

 are about one-tenth larger than those of the 

 eastern variety. 



The spotted breast of the young, which is 

 remarkable in the Robin of Ontario, is also 

 a characteristic of the nesting plumage of the 

 species of the Pacific Coast, and may indicate 

 in the case of this genus that it is a develop- 

 ment of the more woodland Thrushes. 



