12 



THE OOLOGIST 



Tfie ©yro^ist 



FIFTH PUBLICATION YEAR. 



AUGUST, 1879. 



We have several copies of the last vol- 

 ume of this journal ueatly and strougly 

 bound which we offer at 75 cents eacli. 

 The cost of binding alone would be to sub- 

 scribers nearly the price asked for the bound 

 volume. 



It was our intention to publish no col- 

 ored plate of eggs this year as a frontispiece 

 to Volume V., and we should have stated 

 that our subscription price is sixty and not 

 seventy-five cents. We have, however, in 

 order to supply a few who have subscribed 

 at the latter price, decided to have a limit- 

 ed number executed on heavy board, and 

 suitable for framing. We do not desire to 

 receive subscriptions at seventy-five cents, 

 for the plates cost more than the difference 

 amounts to. We shall have the plates 

 ready for delivery if possible by the middle 

 of October. A few extra ones will be col- 

 ored, which we will dispose of for twenty- 

 live cents each. 



>UR publisher's department on the 

 inside of the cover has been somewhat 

 changed. New subscribers will please read 

 before remitting. 



Induce your friends to club with you and 

 obtain this journal at reduced rates. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA. 



jV/rOST experienced collectors have been 

 called upon at some time during their 

 bird studies, to record singular and oft- 

 times unaccountable freaks in the habits, 

 appearance, or nest and eggs of a certain 

 species. Frequently these freaks are, in a 

 measure, regular, or rather expected and 

 consequential ; at other times the observer 

 is the only one who has witnessed the pe- 

 culiarity. We have all seen abnormally 

 white or albino birds, some with black and 

 others with pink eyes ; many of us have 

 found and noted quaint looking or oddly 

 situated nests and singularly marked eggs ; 

 and not a few have had an opportunity of 

 observing the oft recorded habit of some 

 species not accustomed to doing so, of de- 

 positing their eggs in some other bird's nest, 

 thereby rendering Cuckoos' and Cow Birds' 

 specialties less exclusive than was supposed 

 a few years ago. These must all be classed 

 as phenomena, but the word may be so 

 used as to imply two or three meanings 

 within its own general signification ; in the 

 sense in which it is usually employed by 

 naturalists, it may signify something unus- 

 ual, remarkable or occasional. A white 

 Blackbird is certainly a phenomenoy ; none 

 the less a black Robin, both of which have 

 been seen and taken ; birds with more than 

 the normal number of toes, with queerly 

 mai'ked and colored feathers, or with strange 

 habits are among the phenomena ornithol- 

 ogists are occasionally and willingly com- 

 pelled to witness. 



As above remarked, a considerable num- 

 ber of instances have come to notice of the 

 occupation of a certain bird's nest by some 

 other species, while the collector on differ- 

 ent occasions has found eggs of both in it. 

 At the outset, there seems to be an unfath- 

 omable mystery connected with these phe- 

 nomenal occurrences — a look to them which 

 defies all study and investigation. But the 

 truth is, in all probability careful and pro- 

 tracted scrutiny of the birds and nest will 

 reveal some "link" not before imao;ined 



