24 
THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
AN INTERESTING SHELL. 
The Flat Razor Clam, AZachaera Patula, 
Dixon. This shell frequently growing to 6 
inches in length, is very interesting from the 
fact that; aside from its beauty, it has, more 
than any other, contributed to swell the vast 
size of the Indian shell mounds found in many 
places on the Coast of Oregon. 
It was first described by the original collector, 
Captain Geo. Dixon, in his ‘‘Voyage round the 
World” publishcd in London in 1789, from 
which we quote his description entire: — 
“At the mouth of Cook’s River, Lat. 59° 61 are many 
species of Shell-fish, most of them, I presume, nonde- 
script. x X x 
For a repast onr men procured a large species of the 
Solen genus, which they got in quantity, and were easily 
discovered by their spouting up the water as the men 
walked over the sands where lhey inhabited. AsI sup- 
pose it to be anew kind, I have given a figure of it in 
the annexed plate. ; 
’*Tis a thin brittle shell, smooth within and withont; 
one valve is furuished with two front and two lateral 
teeth; the other has one front and one side-tooth, which 
slip in between the others in the opposite valve. From 
theteeth in each valve proceeds a strong rib, which ex- 
tends to above half way across the shell, and gradually 
looses itself toward the edge, which is smooth and sharp. 
The color of the outside is white, circularly, but faint- 
ly, zoned with violet and is covered with a smooth yel- 
lowish—brown epide. mis, slightly zoned and tinted with 
violetand pink. This animal, as in all species of this 
genus, protrudes beyond the ends of the shell very much, 
and is exceedingly good food.” 
All Ornithologists and Oologists in Oregon 
and Washington are requested to send name 
and address to D. Franklin Weeks, Secy. North- 
Western Ornithological Association. 
720 Front St, 
Portland, Ore. 
OUR FEATHERED NEIGHBORS. 
The birds will again soon be among us, 
Of the 
birds that breed with us twenty-five or thirty 
looking about ior their summer homes. 
species prefer to nest about our own homes, 
and will do so if we encourage them and _heip 
By a little 
extra work any-One living in a country town, 
them to find gco] building places. 
or in the suburbs of a city can greatly increase 
the number of b rds f«milies about 
Several species build only in holes or crevices. 
their homes. 
These birds of course will not nest about our 
houses if they can find no suitable place; but 
by placing afew “‘biid boxes” of various sizes 
about the house and yard, most of these biids 
will much prefer to nest in them than to hunt 
up nesting places elsewhere. and we will there- 
fore not only have their happy company during 
the summer, but the good they will do to our 
trees and other vegetation will be enormous. 
Another reason of encouraging the birds is 
Thousands of birds 
and their eggs are destroyed each year by cats. 
to discourage the cats. 
Last summer a farmer’s daughter told me, 
in proud tones, that the ground in their orchard 
was strewn with nestsand broken eggs, torn 
from the fruit trees by her cats. 
It would be interesting for each reader of the 
NATURALIST, to see how many pair of 
birds they can induce to nest about their homes 
this summer, and report their result through 
these columns this fall. 
Wi Soi. 
FROM THE NOTE BOOK. 
The water Ouzel, Hydrobata Mexicana, 
Baird has been very abundan) in the vicinity 
of Portland, this winter, and a few pair breed in 
Clatsop Co. Some years past it is recorded a 
set of four were taken, close to Willamette 
Falls, Oregon City. 
THE Evening Grosbeak, Hesperiphona 
Vespertina, Bonap, has been an_ interesting 
visitor, during January, sometimes alighting in 
the house yards, they are seen in flocks of from 
10 to 100, 
