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THE OSPREY. 



Galitornia DeDariment. 



EDITED BY DONALD A. COHEN, ALAMEDA, CAL. 



COOPER CLUB NOTES. 



THE Cooper Ornithological Club met at the resi- 

 dence of Mr. W. Otto Emerson, Haywards, 

 Cal., on May i. Dr. J. G. Cooper, the pioneer 

 ornithologist, in whose honor the club was named, 

 delivered an address to a large attendance. During 

 the business session a resolution was adopted that 

 the Ornithological department of the Smithsonian be 

 earnestly requested to have some competent person 

 complete the unfinished work of Major Bendire, 

 "Life Histories of North American Birds," and that 

 other Ornithological Associations in the United States 

 be invited to join the request. 



A NEW SOURCE OF REDPOLL'S EGGS. 



IT is not every fraud who has nerve enough to 

 work off House Finches' eggs for those of the 

 Redpoll ; but we have before us documentary 

 evidence that C. L. Haight, Naturalist and Taxider- 

 mist, of Sterling, Kas., has been wilfully guilty of 

 the above transaction. Mr. H. R. Taylor, of llie Xid- 

 o/ogist, received last fall, from said C. L. Haight, 

 two sets of House Finch eggs, the data reading in 

 part: "Redpoll, collected by Charlie Clark, Tulare, 

 Cal., April i and 13, iSg6." We have not yet heard 

 from good authority of the Redpoll breeding in the 

 United States, to say nothing of California, and at 

 Tulare especially, which is in the southern part of 

 the State. Perhaps we are ignorant and uninformed, 

 but we have not been able to find in " O. & O. " books 

 any record of the Redpoll nesting in the United 

 States. 



Mr. Haight in one of his letters to a certain well- 

 known oologist says: "I am sorry to think the set 

 of Redpolls did not prove satisfactory to you. The 

 eggs were collected by Charlie Clark, of Tulare, Cal., 

 and sent to me from there by W. H. Hiller, of Los 

 Angeles." We have written to Charlie Clark, of 

 Tulare, Cal., asking for information regarding his 

 taking Redpoll's eggs in California. The letter was 

 mailed April ig, 1897, and has not been heard from 

 by us, although we plainly affixed to the envelope : 

 "Return after five davs to The Osprey, Alameda, 

 Cal." 



Charlie Clark may be a very juvenile collector 

 and naturally suppose the House Finch to be a Red- 

 poll because the male has a red head ; but if Mr. W. 

 H. Hiller did as Mr. Haight says he did, send out 

 the eggs in ijuestion, then he must be woefully ignor- 

 ant or fraudulently inclined, and we trust such is not 

 the case. 



When Mr. Taylor received the two sets he forth- 

 with notified Mr. Haight they were nothing but 

 House Finch eggs, to which Mr. Haight, under date 

 of Nov. 26, i8g6, replies: "H. I^. Taylor, Alameda, 

 Cal., Dear Sir : — Yours of the i8th at hand and con- 

 tents noted, and also data for the eggs I sent you. I 

 am very sorry that they were not Redpoll as I gave 

 good exchange for these eggs, and supposed they 

 were genuine eggs I suppose I have been swindled, 

 so I will let the fellow I got them of hear from me 

 pretty strongly. If he does not settle the matter I 

 will send his name to you and see what you can do 

 for me, (Signed) Yours truly. C. L. Haight." 



Mr. Haight, nevertheless, negotiates an exchange, 

 a little over two months later, with the well-known 

 oologist referred to and says : ' ' Am sorry to say I 

 exchanged the eggs you want to another party ; all 



but the set of Redpoll, one-fourth of which I send 

 you by this mail. I want in exchange the following 

 sets, * * * * amounting to $1.45. 



This set of Redpoll is a very fine set of this species 

 and as they are very hard to get hold of I do not 

 hardly like to let a set go for such common eggs." It 

 is needless to say that this well-known oologist sent 

 the set back to Mr. Haight, along with a strong 

 piece of his mind, to which, Mr. Haight, under the 

 date of Feb. 15, 1897, has the nerve to reply: 

 "Yours of the 12th at hand. Am sorry you do not 

 know the difference in the House Finch eggs and the 

 Redpoll eggs, but I suppose you are a 'kid' collec- 

 tor, as you say you do know the difference between 

 them. I suppose they have to lay in one county be- 

 cause they are Redpoll's do they? * * * Now 

 don't 'beef around another three weeks about these 

 eggs but send them back by return mail." 



yUEER ACTIONS OF A THRASHER. 

 Mr. W. Otto Emerson, of Haywards, reports see- 

 ing a California Thrasher standing in shallow water 

 of a creek while he was driving along the road, and 

 that the bird was unusually tame. The bird was 

 caught shortly afterwards by an acquaintance of Mr. 

 Emerson and was found to be infested with vermin 

 and consequently much emaciated, thus accounting 

 for its strange behavior in standing in the water. It 

 soon died. 



GorresDondence. 



REMARKS ON PROF. KUMLIEN'S CORREC- 

 TION. 

 To the Editor of The Osprey : 



Referring to Prof. Kumlien's article, "A Correc- 

 tion of a Frequent Misstatement " in the May Osprey, 

 I desire to say that I have found the Yellow-headed 

 Black-bird nesting in wild rice (or water oats) in 

 Cut-oft Lake, near this city ; in B'g Lake, Pottowa- 

 tomia County, Iowa ; and in the Sandhill (alkali) 

 Lakes of Cherry County, Nebraska, and Lugenbeel 

 County, South Dakota. In the latter locality this 

 species nests in immense numbers and almost exclu- 

 sively in the wild rice. Isador S. Trostler, 



Omaha, Neb.. June 2, 1897. 



TROILE OR LOMVIA ? 

 To the Editor of The Osprey : 



Your favor of May 31, in regard to my note on the 

 Murre in April Osprey, came duly to hand. Pardon 

 a few days' delay in my answer. I was absent in the 

 field I sent the specimen in question to Mr. Frank 

 Blake Webster, Hyde Park, Mass., to be mounted, 

 and he pronounced it troilc. A friend owns the 

 specimen and I can submit it to some other authority 

 if you wish. But it would seem to me that Mr. Web- 

 ster ought to be familiar with this species as many 

 specimens have passed through his hands. 



Benjamin Hoag, 



Stephentown, New York, June 7, 1897. 



[The many captured specimens reported as Murre 

 (I'riii troih-) which afterwards proved to be Brun- 

 nick's Murre (i\ /ouivia), led us to wish further in- 

 vestigation of Mr. Hoag's capture. This specimen 

 was named by Mr. Webster previously to the identifi- 

 cation of the number of lately captured huin'ia sup- 

 posed at first to be troilc; and perhaps, therefore, 

 this bird was thus labelled without critical examina- 

 tion. We would suggest that Mr. Hoag submit the 

 specimen again to Mr. Webster, or to an authority 

 more conveniently located. — Ed.] 



