THE OOLOGIST. 



11 



poses upon the readers of this maga- 

 zine the best of John Burroughs' essays 

 as bis own, without using a single quo- 

 tation, he should explain the remark- 

 able parallelism of thought exhibited. 

 This criticism is given charitably, but 

 justice to the readers and contributors 

 of the OoLOGiST demands that such 

 things shall not pass unnoticed when 

 known. 



The recorded occurrences of the Har- 

 ris Sparrow in Illinois are so few that 

 1 desire to notice my capture of two in- 

 dividuals of this species in this vicinity, 

 reports of which were sent to the Or- 

 nithologist and Oologist about the time 

 that journal ceased to circulate and 

 hence my notes remain unpublished. 

 My first specimen was taken shortly 

 after sunrise on the morning of Sep- 

 tember 28, 1893. while I was out col- 

 lecting birds for the examination of my 

 class in zoology. I was walking along 

 the bushy edge of the woods near a 

 creek, when I observed two birds un- 

 known to me flitting ahead of me in com. 

 pany with a Hermit Thrush and several 

 Brown Thrashers. I secured one of the 

 two strangers, but as my time was limited 

 I allowed the other Sparrow to escape. 

 On examination of the bird and after 

 consulting my JNatural History Survey 

 of Illinois, Ridgway, I identified the 

 specimen as Harris's Sparrow, which 

 Ridgway describes as quite rare in this 

 state. Thinking that I had made a 

 mistake, I used Coues' Key. and again 

 ended with the same result, so record- 

 ing it in my journal. 



On the morning of Nov. U, 1893, at 

 about the same time of the day I secured 

 another bird which I 'again decided to 

 be this rare species, this one being tak- 

 «n along a hedge in the edge of the vil- 

 lage, where it was flitting with migrant 

 Sparrows. I now decided that either 

 I was extremely lucky in thus finding 

 this rare species again or that my iden- 

 tification was at fault, and sent this in- 

 dividual to the Department of Agricul- 



ture for identification, receiving notice 

 in due time that I had correctly placed 

 the specimens. I believe that a closer 

 observation of the migrants of this re- 

 gion would show this species far less 

 rare than it has been reported. 



P. M. SiLLOWAY, 



Virden, Ills. 



From Venzuela. 



Editor Oologist; 



I promised your readers in my letter 

 to your paper from Port of Spain that 

 I would try and send them some word 

 from the delta of the Orinoco. [Perhaps 

 that letter may not have reached you 

 for the boat, the ill fated- Juanaddy, 

 which brought our party out from New 

 York, struck on the rocks off St. Kitts 

 on the return trip and •! have not 

 learned wliether or not the mail, with 

 our letters for the States was sav'ed. 

 However as our party is settled for a 

 time in camp at a place called Sacu- 

 pana and I have leisure this morning I 

 will communicate a few general notes 

 relative to the ornithology of this re- 

 gion. 



For the benefit of those who may be 

 interested in knowing, I will say that 

 t^iough they can find Sacupana given 

 on the maps of Venzuela as a city there 

 is no towu here, ^ot a single person, 

 black or white, resides here and all we 

 found in the shape of a habitation was 

 a deserted Indian hut, which we are at 

 present jointly occupying with taran- 

 tulas, centipedes, scorpions, snakes and 

 a host of rats, toads and insects numer- 

 ous in species as well as numbers. 



I confess I hardly know just how to 

 begin. I could speak of numerous ad- 

 ventures and experiences on the differ- 

 ent channels of the Orinoco, in the 

 woods and in camp, which my search 

 for ornithological lore have led me in- 

 to. I might tell of having my canoe 

 upset by a large manitee and of losing 



