96 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Important to Illinois Ornithologists. 



A bill has been introduced in the 

 house which will be hard on the Orni- 

 thologists and Oologist if it passes as 

 it now stands. 



It is a proposed game law and may 

 pass as the sportsmen and game war 

 dens are working hard for it. Accord- 

 ing to a daily Chicago paper, one 

 clause says that a person shall be fined 

 $10 for each bird or nest he takes, A 

 license to collect birds.or eggs,costs $20 

 and unless a person has a license he is 

 liable to be fined. Why the fee was 

 made such an unreasonable amount, I 

 cannot understand unless the pinch be 

 that the collectors will be unable to 

 take out a license and can be fined 

 heavily for any birds, or nests they may 

 have with them. The list of birds, 

 which cannot be collected without a li- 

 cense, will cover about all the birds in 

 the state and one or two that are not 

 found on this side of the Atlantic as 

 Bullfinch, Canary and Linnet. Let 

 every collector in Illinois write to his 

 representative in the House at Spring- 

 field, and ask that this part of the bill 

 be changed, so the license will be given 

 free or on payment of a small sum, as 

 fifty cents, upon the person proving 

 that he is collecting for a strictly scien- 

 tific collection. 



I do not believe the sportsmen of the 

 state will object, although the game 

 wardens may, if this part is changed, 

 for it was evidently made to fill the 

 pocketbooks of the game wardens. If 

 it passes, collecting without a license 

 can not be done very well without de- 

 tection, for the game wardens are mak- 

 ing a large number of arrests now for 

 shoooting game out of season, and for 

 shooting small birds for fun. Write at 

 once or the bill may pass, and we are 

 lost. Don't delay a minute. 



James O'Dunn, 

 Chicago, May 12, '95. 



MARCH CONTEST. 



Sixty-six Judges- 



1. An Unusual Nest Site of thePho?- 

 be, 268. 



2. Birds Who Sing on the Wing, 200. 



3. The Vireos Found Nesting near 

 Berwyn, Chester Co., Pa., 164. 



4 Breeding Time of Our Birds in the 

 Extreme Part of Western New York, 

 149. 



5. Birds and Storms, 109. 



Two of the Judges, H. Gould Wel- 

 born, Lexington, N. (1, and Albert H. 

 Wallace, Montclair, N. J., named the 

 winning articles in their exact order. 

 Hencein accordance with the plan given 

 in the Feb. Oologist (page 40) the Jud- 

 ges prize was equally divided between 

 these two gentleman. As an item of in- 

 interest, we might also add that Mr. 

 Wallace named "Winter Birds of Linn 

 County, Oregon" as a sixth article— 

 which was the correct one. 



All prizes were mailed on April 18th. 



APRIL CONTEST. 



Forty Judges- 



1. Norway's Bird Islands, 170. 

 3. The Last Portrait of Audubon, 

 Together with a Letter to His Son, 152, 



3. Notes on the Blackburnian Warb- 

 ler. 111. 



4. Standard Datas, 81. 



5. My First Find of 1895, 44. 



Two of the Judges. N. HoUister, Dele- 

 van, Wis., and C. R. Stockard, Co.um- 

 bus. Miss., named the winning ai'ticles 

 in their exact order and between them 

 the Judges prize was equally divided. 



In the April Oologist a number of 

 the Judges seemed to question whether 

 they should vote on all of the articles or 

 whether two or three of three of them 

 were barred from the contest or not. 

 Had we informed them to vote on all 

 the result might have differed slightly 

 from the verdict rendered. 



The second Mss., prize we expect to 

 send Dr.Shufeldt "in September" scien- 

 titicly labeled — "Compliments of the 

 Readers of the Oologist,"— all other 

 prizes were mailed on May 15th. 



