2 The Wi^sdN Bulletin — Xo. 98 



, ■ f ( ,, , , , 



a short note in the Auk, the Bird Journal of the Atlantic Coast, 

 written about nine years ago and when I turned to the page I 

 saw what had fallen into my hands. Consequently I turned 

 to the book which had accompanied the skins and there found 

 accurately recorded the ornithological life history of a man, 

 who furnished many other men in the New England States 

 in the past with splendid records of New England birds, and 

 whose records are worthy to be retold or revealed. The col- 

 lection, Qj- what was left of it — 302 skins — thus proved to 

 be of considerable historical value and it gives me great pleas- 

 ure to show the most interesting ones of them to the members 

 of the Wilson Club today, as I read to them from the records 

 of the past, from the diary of Dr. Erwin I. Shores, the Orni- 

 thologist of Sufifield, Connecticut. 



The diary begins with statements of his childhood days back 

 in 1862 and relates struggles with parental objections to the 

 use of a gun, when he was only eight years old, the wrestling 

 with questions of identification of birds, all things with which 

 the most of us are familiar from our own reminiscences'. Ten- 

 ney's Manual, and in 1871, when the family lived in Haver- 

 hill, Mass., Johnson's Natural History, as also Maynard's 

 Naturalist's Guide served him as his ornithological literature. 

 There at Haverhill he also learned the art of taxidermy. Two 

 good records from this time are still preserved in the diary, 

 viz, the shooting of a Black-backed three-toed Woodpecker 

 (Picoides arcticns) in October, 1871, at Bradford, along the 

 river, but he says of this specimen : " it was so lousy, that I 

 only kept his head and wing." In November of the same year 

 a friend gave him a pair of little Auks {AUc alle) which were 

 shot on Kenoza lake, which he mounted and still had at a very 

 late date. In August, 1872, the family moved to Suffield, 

 Conn., and in September of the same year he entered Brown 

 University and there became acquainted with Professor J. W. 

 P. Jenks. Through him he became still more interested in 

 birds and received permission from his parents to accompany 

 the Professor on a winter trip to Florida. The trip I wish to 

 give in his own words. He writes as follows : 



