110 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 17-No. 7 



THE 



ORNITH0L0GIST..t''OOLOGlST 



A Monthly Magazine of 



NATURAL HISTORY, 



ESPECIALLY DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF 

 BIPIIDS, 



THEIR NESTS AND EGGS, 



and to the 



INTERESTS OF NATURALISTS. 



Under the Editorial Management of 



FRANK B. WE15STE11, Hyde Park, Mass. 



J. PARKER NORRIS, Philadeli.hia, Pa 



PUBLISHED AT THE 



MUSEUM AND NATURALISTS SUPPIY DEPOT 



FRAXK BLAKE WEBSTER COMPANY 



INCORPORATED, 



Hyde Park, Mass., U. S. A. 



The O. & O. is mailed each issue to every paid sub- 

 scriber. If you fail to receive it. notif j' us. 



The Labrador Duck. 



Tlie specimen that was advertised a slK)rt 

 time since in tlie O. & O. lias been sold and as 

 we predicted went into a European collection. 

 It created quite an interest among our sub- 

 scribers and we regret that we are not 

 autliorized to announce the purchaser. It is 

 lost to America. 



An annoying typographical blunder appeared 

 in Mr. Norris' editoral note to Mr. Gillett's 

 article on the American Bittern in the June 

 number, (p. 87). Mr. Giillett stated 

 that the eggs were "four or five 

 in number, generally five." Mr. Norris add- 

 ed in the note, " my experience leads me 

 to believe that three eggs are very 

 commonly a set," but the printer made this 

 read, " my experience leads me to believe that 

 these eggs are very commonly a set," which, 

 of course, was nonsense. 



A Correction. — In my article on the Blue- 

 gray Gnatcatcher in the O. & O., p. 74, ninth 

 line from the top, instead of " diversity," read 

 " density." W. E. Clyde Todd. 



SVashington, D. C. 



Brief Notes. 



Late Migrants. — On June 3d, while out 

 for a drive, 1 noticed a pair of Horned Larks 

 fiying over a newly plowed field. As 1 have 

 never seen the birds here later than the 29th 

 of March, the question comes up, Do they 

 occasionally remain and breed this far south ? 



S. B. Inger.soll. 



I notice in the April issue, a reference to the 

 occasional catching of birds on barbed wire 

 fences. This calls to mind the finding of a 

 Crane which in alighting upon a sandbar had 

 become entangled in a fence, remaining there 

 until dead. I have also found a snipe in a 

 like condition and think that such accidents 

 may occur not unfrequently. E. A. Miller. 



I would like to know what is sui:)posed to 

 be the earliest breeding date of the Crow in 

 New England? I took a set of six on Ajn-il 17th 

 that had been set on four or five days. 



A. M. Farmer. 



To the list of birds that sing on their nests 

 may be added the Black-headed Grosbeak. 



W. P. Loioc. 

 Pueblo, Col. 



Your last issue informs me that you are to 

 devote one page to exchange notices. I 

 hope that advanced oologists will avail them- 

 selves of the i)rivilege. Frank Craig. 



Dealers as a rule, do not care to encourage 

 exchanges among collectors. The O. & O. 

 l)eing a magazine devoted to the collectors, 

 proposes to oiien its columns to anything that 

 will be a- benefit to tlu'm. This would have 

 been done before, but we have never been 

 requested to. 



Mr. Samuel B. Ladd, of West Chester, Ta., 

 has returned fiom North Carolina, where he 

 went on a collecting trip after eggs and skins. 

 He was remarkably successful and some of 

 the eggs he found there were a great surprise 

 to his friends; notably the sets of Canadian 

 Warbler (Si/liHinia Canadensis) and Black- 

 throated Blue Warbler (Dendrceca Cferulescens). 

 But then Mr. Ladd is such a wonderful 

 collector that he can find eggs that others 

 have not ))een able to. 



He has jjroinlsed to write an account of his 

 trip for the O. & O., and we can promise our 

 readers a treat. J. P. N. 



We are indebted to Harry Piers for an extract 

 from the Transactions of the Nova Scotian 

 Institute of .Science, containing "Notes on Nova 

 Scotian Zoology," read by him March 14, 1802. 

 It contains a number of ornithological notes of 

 interest. 



Now, that the collecting season is over, is 

 the time to send us notes of what you have 

 done. 



Remember, in sending communications, 

 that Hyde Park is our only place of business. 



" We do not care to probe into that mighty 

 mass of dead tree, brown and porous as a 

 sponge, for already it is a mere semblance of a 

 l^rostrate log," writes Stanley in his book. 



