126 



THE OSPREY. 



THE OSPREY. 



An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Ornithology 



EDITED BY 



WALTER ADAMS JOHNSON 



ASSOCIATED WITH 



Dr. ELLIOTT COUES 



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

 Dollar a year, in advance. Single Copies, Ten Cents. 



Foreign Subscription: One Dollar and Twenty five Cents. 

 Postage paid to all countries in the Postal L'nion. 



British agent: Frank A. Arnold, Mersham, Surrey, England. 

 Advertising rates sent on request. 



Notes and News of a relevant nature, and original contribu- 

 tions are respectfully solicited, and should be addressed to 

 the editor at the office of publication. 



Copyright, 1897, by The Osprey Company. Entered at the 

 Galesburg Postoffice as second-class mail matter. 



THE OSPREY COMPANY. 



61 N. Prairie St. 



Galesburg, III. 



With the present number we commence printing 

 The Osprey in a new and smaller face of type. We 

 consider this much better suited to the use of the maga- 

 zine and well worth the additional expense incurred 

 through its use. Though The Osprey in the past 

 has gone far ahead of the mark expected of a dollar 

 bird-monthly, we feel that our advancement will not 

 stop here, but that the same causes that have made 

 the present success of the magazine possible; namely, 

 the strong support given us and the motive, previous- 

 ly mentioned in these columns, by which The Osprey 

 Company was formed; will enable us to introduce 

 still other improving features that we have in mind. 



For the present, among the unique features of The 

 Osprey in the forthcoming months, is a series of 

 Louis Agassiz Fuertes' paintings. These appearing 

 from the brush of America's greatest living bird- 

 painter, for the first time, make the magazine in- 

 valuable to those who wish to be abreast with the 

 advancement of Ornithology. 



The people of Lake Providence, Louisana, within 

 the districts of the recent Mississippi floods, have 

 lately directed their enmity to the Kingfisher. It 

 seems that the population of Lake Providence have 

 only lately become aware that the Kingfisher makes 

 its nest at the end of a long tunnel of its own construc- 

 tion in the banks bordering the lakes and rivers, and 

 that only too often the birds select the all-important 

 levee as a suitable nesting site. As a result some of 

 the residents forget, for the time being, their wrath 

 with the crawfislies and muskrats in their new found 

 object of animosity. It is to be hoped that they will 

 direct their efforts to protect the levees rather than 

 to exterminate the Kingfishers, for the latter plan 

 could not be as successful as the former while it 

 could be very harmful to bird-life. 



Chief Pokagon kindly sends us a copy of his inter- 

 esting book: "The Red Man's Greeting." It is a uni- 

 que little work, the leaves of which are of birch bark. 

 Another little work that comes to our desk is "Issa- 

 quena, ' an ancient Indian legend of the Issaquena 

 Falls of South Carolina, beautifully written in verse 

 by Charles Sloan Reid, a familiar contributor to The 

 Osprey. A copy of "In Bird Land," comprising a 

 number of papers republished from periodicals, is 

 sent us by the author, the Rev. Leander S. Keyser. 

 These papers show Mr. Keyser's characteristic origi- 



nality, and antipathy for anybody or anything that 

 uselessly destroys bird-life. This was issued by A. 

 C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, in 1896. 



Mr. W. E. Clyde Todd, of the Biological Survey 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, 

 D. C, wishes us to say that he has in course of 

 preparation a work on the birds of the western half 

 of Pennsylvania, which will discuss in detail the 

 geographic distribution and migration within that 

 section, as well as these subjects in general In order 

 that the work may be complete he needs the assist- 

 ance of as many as possible of the reliable ornitholo- 

 gists and oologists now residing in that part of Penn- 

 sylvania, or any of those having notes, however frag- 

 mentary, on the birds thereof. 



The beautiful home of the Cohen family of 

 Alameda, Cal., was completely destroyed by fire on 

 March 23, last. The residence was second to none 

 in the state for size, convenience, and comfort. The 

 loss is estimated at about $300,000. Our California 

 editor lost considerable in the fire 



The first annual report of the New York Zoological 

 Society was published March 15. The great Public 

 Zoological Park that this society proposes to establish 

 in New York will be an important feature of the city; 

 and the value of the aid that the society will give to 

 scientific work is inestimable. 



England has turned against its own Sparrow. The 

 birds are being slaughtered in great numbers by the 

 farmers, especially in Yorkshire, and great disgust is 

 expressed at the manner of their taking off. The 

 Board of Agriculture refuses to protect the birds. 



A bill to repeal the law providing for the payment 

 of a bounty on the heads of English Sparrows was 

 defeated in the Michigan Legislature on April 16. 



PHOTOGRAPH NOTES. 



The photographs of the Anna's Hummingbird pub- 

 lished on p. 116 were taken by Mrs. Elizabeth Grin- 

 I « nell, of Pasadena, Cal., and a 



_ g local photographer. Such pic- 



^Kn^ tures as these can be taken only 



^^Uii with great difficulty, and we un- 



^^^Oik derstand that these were secured 



flPl^^^L only after much work and many 



BflUj^^^^^^ failures. These pictures will be 

 ^P^^^^^^P^ published in a juvenile bird-book, 

 ^^^^^^ of which Mrs Grinnell is author, 



to be issued by Boston publishers. 

 Their appearance in The Osprey 

 was secured through Mr. Joseph 

 Grinnell. 



Mr. Ora W. Knight, of Bangor, Me., sends us a 

 fine series of photographs taken about Penobscot Bay, 

 one of which, a nest of the American Herring Gull, 

 is printed on p. 117. Data given : Nest of seeweed, 

 grass, and a few feathers. Placed on a shelf of a 

 rocky ledge — Black Ledge, near He au Haut, coast 

 of Maine, June 23, iSg6. More of these will appear 

 later, notably an interior and lateral view of an .Amer- 

 ican Osprey's nest, published with a series of pictures 

 pertaining to this species. 



Our Great Horned Owls of this number were cor- 

 raled and pictured by the combined efforts of Messrs. 

 Allan A. Green, Harry C. Butcher and W. .\. John- 

 son, of Galesburg. The excellent photograph is a 

 sample of Mr. Green's work. 



Copyrighted. 



