56 



THE OSPREY. 



THE OSPREY. 



An Illustrated Monthly Magazine Devoted 

 Exclusively to the Interests of 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



EDITED BY 



WAIvTER ADAMS JOHNSON. 



Subscription: In the United States, Canada and Mexico, One 

 Dollar a year, in ad%ance. 



Single copies, Ten Cents. 



Foreign Subscription : One Dollar and Twenty-five Cents. Post- 

 age paid to all countries in the Universal Postal Union. 



Advertising rates sent on request. 



Notes and News of a relevant nature, and original contributions 

 are respectfully solicited, and should be addressed to Editors 

 at office of publication. 



Copy for advertisements and all matter for publication should 

 be in the publisher's hands by the fifteenth of the month pre- 

 ceding publication. 



The resident locality of contributors are given when nature of 

 article requires it. 



Entered at the Galesburg Postoffice as mail matter of the 

 second class. 



Address all business communications to 



THE OSPREY CO., 



217 Main Street, GALESBURG, Ihh 



DECEMBER, 1896. 



Simon Pokag^on, chief of the Pokag-on band 

 of the Pottawattomie Indians, whose article 

 appears in this number, sends his best wishes 

 to The Ospkkv. Chief Pokag^on is the author 

 of a unique little publication, " The Redman's 

 Greeting-," printed on birch bark. He is now 

 nearly seventy years of age, and has been 

 called by the press, " the Longfellow of his 

 race." His father, chief before him, sold the 

 land where Chicago now stands for three cents 

 an acre. Chief Pokagon says: •' I wish you 

 success in accordance with the g-rand work, as 

 no truer words were ever said than 'the birds 

 to the animal creation are as the flowers to the 

 vegetable world." 



Large numbers of eggs of water birds are 

 used to furnish albumen, as used by the pho- 

 tographer. This can only be obtained from 

 eggs, and those of the domestic hen are too 

 valuable for this use. Natives of Labrador, 

 Greenland, Hebrides and other nesting local- 

 ities are yearly furnishing'- this product, which 

 fact leads a sportsman to say that photogra- 

 phy is killing more ducks than are hunters. 



We have a photograph, sent us by Prank B. 

 Webster Company, of two Wild Pig-eons 

 taken from live specimens, which they kept in 

 captivity^ Unfortunately the birds escaped, 

 and also that the photograph is blurred and 

 unfit for half-tone reproduction. 



The regular annual meeting of the North- 

 western Ornithological Association will be held 

 at Salem, Oregon, on December 29th and 30th. 



Prof. H. Newell Martin, who until recently 

 held the chair of biologj^ in Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity, has just died in England. 



Messrs. H. C. Butcher, George Rogers and W. 

 A. Johnson spent three days hunting at Thomp- 

 son's Lake, on the Illinois River near Havana. 

 Localities mentioned in Prof. Silloway's inter- 

 esting papers were visited, and a few ducks 

 and snipe shot. On the return trip to Galesburg- 

 Dr. Strode was met at Lewistown The doctor 

 has fine collections in several branches, notably 

 ornitholog'-\% chroncology, botany, mineralog'-y 

 and many Indian relics ; a visit with him is 

 very interesting. 



We are indebted to Mr. Otto Widmann for the 

 following clipping from a St. Louis newspaper: 



" On Friday' morning of the week before last, 

 early risers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, wit- 

 nessed a peculiar sight in the shape of a shower 

 of birds that fell from a clear sky, literally 

 cluttering the streets of the city. There were 

 wild ducks, catbirds, woodpeckers, and many 

 birds of strange plumage, some of them re- 

 sembling canaries, but all dead, falling in 

 heaps along- the thoroughfares, the singular 

 phenomenon attracting'- many spectators and 

 causing much comment. 



The most plausible theory as to the strang-e 

 windfall is that the birds were driven inland 

 by the late storm on the Florida coast, the 

 force of the current of air and the sudden change 

 of temperature causing the death of many of 

 the little feathered creatures when they reached 

 Baton Roug-e Some idea of the extent of the 

 shower may be g-athered from the estimate 

 that out on iSIational Avenue alone the children 

 of the neighborhood collected as manv as 200 

 birds." 



The Hermit Thrush, 



Where the brook steals g'-ently thro" the tang-led 



brake 

 And the breeze's spirit seems seldom awake, 

 The single clear note of the hermit bird 

 In its praise of solitude sweet is heard. 



— Ch.a.ri,es Slo.\n Reid. 



Mr. H. C. Johnson, of Alameda, Pacific coast 

 manag-er for Pope Manufacturing- Company, is 

 now in Hartford. Connecticut, at the company's 

 headquarters on business matters. 



We understand that Brother Taylor of T/ic 

 N^idotogisf will be a candidate for election to 

 the citv clerk's office of Alameda, California. 



Messrs, Warren Williamson and Thomas H. 

 Blodgett have a taxidermist shop at Knox Col- 

 lege this autumn . 



Mr. George G. Cantwell is now located at 

 Juneau, Alaska, and is doing some g^ood work. 



Mr. R. W. Williams, Jr., is taking a law 

 course at Valparaiso, Ind 



The museum, nearly completed, at Leyden, 

 will be the largest in the world next to the 

 British Musuem. Within its walls space will 

 be provided for 80,000 stuffed birds. 



