166 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Society hired Mr. Watkins, well known 

 to readers of the Oologist, to make an 

 exhibit for them at the Ann Arbor fair, 

 Sept. 24 to 27 inclusive. The following 

 is taken from a local paper: "L. Whit- 

 ney Watkins of Manchester, has a part 

 of his collection of birds and insects in 

 the school exhibit corner at the fair. It 

 attracts a great deal of attention. Mr. 

 Watkins is a thorough scientist in his 

 line, is a graduate of Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College, and is a member of al- 

 most evei-y scientific society interested 

 in his work in the country." 



The fifth annual meeting of the West- 

 ern New York Naturalists' Association, 

 was held at Chili, Monroe County, 

 Thursday, October 3d. The following 

 officers were elected for the ensuing 

 year: President, Albert H. Davis, 

 Brockport; Vice-President, Frank H. 

 Lattin, Albion; Secretary, George F. 

 Guelf, Brockport; Treasure!', Ernest 

 H. Short, Albion; Executive Committee, 

 E. J. Botsford, Medina, N. L. Davis, 

 Brockport and L. V. Case, Geneseo. 

 Elected to active membership, W. J. 

 Wirt, Gaines. It was decided that the 

 next meeting he held at Albion, Or- 

 leans county during the month of March, 

 1896. Exact date will be given later. 



In his list of "honorable protestants" 

 in the October Nidiologist Bro. Taylor 

 includes the name of V. W. Owen of 

 Los Angeles, California. If Owen is 

 "honorable" he is positively ignorant 

 and Bro. Taylor should have qualified 

 his endorsement accordingly. If any 

 of the readers of the Oologist has 

 any rare set or sets in his or her posses- 

 sion that came from or through the 

 hands of this Owen — pack carefully and 

 mail at once to H. R. Taylor, 150 Fifth 

 Ave., New York, N. Y. Don't forget 

 to enclose stamps for the return of your 

 valuable (?) specimens. As a nucleus 

 for this "Owen Aggregation" the editor 

 of the Oologist will, in an unusual 

 modest philanthropic manner, send in 



sets of the Leconte's Thrasher and 

 Abert's Towhee of Owen's personal col- 

 lecting which on the data he assui'es us 

 "Identification, positive." In the case 

 of the Leconte's Thrasher "the female 

 parent bird was shot and identified" 

 this clincher is given in a letter however 

 and not on the data. Bro. Taylor 

 will also find upon close inspection of 

 the datas a wonderful case of coinci- 

 dence in the nidification of these two 

 species for both sets were of "four," 

 set mark "1-4, "identification "positive" 

 and incubation "commenced" and both 

 nests were "placed in a bush 3 feet up." 

 But the most remarkable of all the sets 

 which we shall include in the "nucleus" 

 is a set of Saw-whet Owl. This set is 

 wonderful in many particulars. 1st 

 they were collected by an oologist of 

 whom the editor of the Oologist never 

 heard, while a young collector 3,000 

 miles away had no difficulty, not only 

 in unearthing but in securing a set of 

 eggs of a species -which many near-by 

 oologists would have jumped at an op- 

 portunity to obtain at full rates and 

 paid the cash. In fact one of the last 

 sets we owned was disposed of at double 

 rates. 2d, thev wei'e collected at "Be- 

 loit, Mass.," a place not in existence. 3d 

 that the eggs are really those of the 

 Burrowing Owl and taking this fact 

 into consideration that they should 

 have been taken in the state of Massa- 

 chusets and from a 'stump about ten 

 feet from ground." 4th, that the writ- 

 ing on the data which accompanies this 

 set should lead one to question as to 

 whether it is not the disguised hand 

 writing of either an "honorable" or 

 "ignorant" collector. 



As there is a possibility in this case 

 of Owen's being "honorable" but 

 "ignorant" and that he has been 

 the bunkoed party we give his feasible 

 explanation, he says: "The set of Saw- 

 whet Owl I obtained from Mr. Gillmore 

 of Mass, who is a reliable collector. 

 He has lately come to California to live 

 and has been disposing of a pai't of his 



