THE OOLOGIST 



315 



A Letter. 



"Dear Sir: — 



"I suppose it is hard for collectors 

 who have prosecuted their favorite 

 study for years to appreciate the ig- 

 norance of the novice. And in our 

 >'at!onal History papers this dullness 

 of comprehension sometimes fails of 

 recognition. Having laid a favorite 

 study on the shelf and resuming it af- 

 ter the lapse of years enables me to 

 appreciate hov> much has "happened" 

 in the interval. In 1893 I made some 

 notes on the birds in Pennsylvania 

 and collected some eggs. But my eyes 

 were undergoing a test to keep up my 

 college work and I had to abandon the 

 work. Conchology claimed by devo- 

 tion and has held it unfailingly. But 

 now I fain would pick up some of the 

 lost links and it is my Impression 

 that a series of articles would be 

 greatly appreciated by some collectors 

 not as much lost as I am. 



"Can you not arrange to tell us some- 

 thing about the prominent collectors 

 (not necessarily the authorities in the 

 literature of ornithology,) but of the 

 field workers who have made collec- 

 tions worth seeing and worth knowing 

 about? Perhaps this has been done in 

 previous volumes of The Oologist, 

 which unfortunately I do not have. 



"I think also it would be interesting 

 to review — what is, to be sure, most 

 elemental — the best approved of mod- 

 ern methods of collecting and prepar- 

 ing eggs — all the way from caring for 

 specimens in the field to their arrange- 

 ment in the cabinet. 



"Another thing which should be of 

 special interest would be to call at- 

 tention to neglected field where new 

 birds might be found and rare eggs 

 collected. 



"Still another thing. What are the 

 really rare and famous eggs? Of 

 course the Great Auk heads the list, 



but does it? and why? What otliei- 

 species are re|)resented by rare sets of 

 eggs, and where can they be seen? 

 What sets are considered unobtain- 

 able? What is the history of some 

 famous collections? 



"Maybe I am very dull, but these are 

 some of the things that 1 find myself 

 wanting to know. 



"H. E. Wheeler." 



The above suggestion is a good one, 

 and will be acted ui)on by The Oologist 

 management in the future.— Ed. 



How High Do Birds Fly? 



This is an unsettled problem in or- 

 nithology. Various newspapers recent- 

 ly contained articles on the inability 

 of birds to fly or soar at heights ex- 

 ceeding 25,000 feet, and some of the 

 papers even intimated that it was im- 

 possible even for the Condor to fly at 

 this elevation. 



I believe it is Humboldt who says, 

 "The Condor, that giant among the 

 vultures, soars at an altitude greater 

 than the summits of the Andes, and 

 even higher than would be the Peak 

 of Teneriffe were it piled upon the 

 snow-crowned summits of the Pyren- 

 nes." 



The highest peak of the Pyrennes 

 is 11,168 feet, and the peak of Tene- 

 riffe is 12,182 feet above the sea: these 

 piled on top of each other would make 

 a gigantic mountain over 23,000 feet 

 in height — about the average height of 

 the Andes — or a little less than five 

 miles: and yet the Condor soars above 

 this immense elevation with compara- 

 tive ease. In fact, it is rarely found, 

 I believe, below 10,000 feet elevation. 



Another traveler. Dr. J. D. Hooker, 

 viewed from the summit of Mount 

 Bhomteo, on the frontier of Thibet, in 

 the Himalayan mountains, long black 

 V-shaped trains or fiocks of wild geese 

 flying over the glacier-crowned top 



