BULLETIN No. 34. 



21 



Many of tlie old Ornithologht and Oologist readers will re- 

 cognize a familiar pen in our leading article. Mr. Walter Hoxie 

 contributed frequently to that magazine in its most palmy days. 

 We hope to catch him in a reminiscent mood soon and have him 

 write of hunters and ornithologists now dead but not wholly 

 forgotten, and of incidents and adventures long past, away back 

 when the Passenger Pigeon was trapped and the Labrador Duck 

 shot to eat. 



Plans for the future numbers have scarcely been formu- 

 lated, but we can pronounce something of interest for every 

 issue. Professor Lynds Jones and others will continue the 

 "Bird Horizon"; an interesting episode in the life of Alexander 

 Wilson which has only been touched upon previously, will be 

 given; and articles and notes of general interest contributed by 

 others of our members and subscribers, will serve to maintain 

 the high standard set by our predecessor. 



It is small wonder that Gmelin, Wilson, and a few others of 

 our earlier Ornithologists should have failed to discover the di- 

 chromatic state of the plumage of the Screech Owl, but regard- 

 ing the grey phase as totally distinct from the red phase and 

 naming accordingly; knowing so little of its life history as they 

 did ; but it is just a little queer that Bonapartt, Audubon, 

 Nuttall and Cassin should have made almost as great a 

 mistake in correcting their predecessors, for they believed the 

 grey plumaged bird to be the adult and the bird in the red 

 or rufous plumage the young; and it is only within the present 

 generation that the full truth has been known. At this date 

 how many know the predominating color and proportion of 

 one to the other in a given locality .-' And whether the males 

 are more given to the red or grey coloration than the females, 

 or vice versa ? Let every reader sit down and copy off a list 

 with locality, of the reds, greys, and intermediate grades cap- 

 tured, and observed, as far as possible subdividing them as to 

 sex and age — giving males and females, adults and young un- 

 der each phase of plumage. It ought to make an interesting 

 list as all are familiar with our little Screech Owl, and the edi- 

 tor will be glad to publish the results in tabulated form in the 

 next Bulletin. 



