72 
POPULAE SCIENCE NEWS. 
[May, 1S90. 
given to accuracy, neatness, and beauty of 
style, but the main idea is to award the prize 
to the person showing the most originality 
and scientific ability in his methods of obser- 
vation, and in the results secured. The 
observations may be made in any field, 
according to individual preference, whether 
botany, mineralogy, entomology, or any other 
department of natural science. All observa- 
tions must be original and new — that is, made 
after reading this announcement. There are 
four months in which to use 3'our eyes and 
brains, and in that time many interesting 
things should be discovered. Correspondence 
on this subject should be addressed to the 
President of the Agassiz Association, at Pitts 
field. 
+♦+ — ' 
ones having been lost through carelessness. To 
remedy this and to make permanent the results of 
our studies, at the same time largely assisting to 
increase the esprit de corps, it has been thought 
advisable to publish the best reports in a semi- 
annual—perhaps quarterly— bulletin, which we hope 
to introduce to the botanically-inclined members of 
the Agassiz Association before long. Plans are 
being made to increase the membership and largely 
extend the usefulness of the Chapter during the 
present year. I shall be pleased to send a copy 01 
the constitution, or to answer any questions con- 
cerning the Chapter, to those who will enclose a 
two-cent stamp for reply. 
G. H. Hicks, Pres. 
Lock Box 766, Owosso, Mich. 
EXCHANGE NOTICE. 
Mauine Shells of California, for other 
shells. Lists exchanged. — M. Burton Wil- 
liamson, University P. O., Los Angeles Co., 
Cal. 
*♦> 
A COURSE IN BOTANY. 
Mr. Alex. Wight, of Framingham, Mass., 
is now ready to receive applications for his 
Agassiz Association lessons in botany. He 
furnishes prepared specimens with lesson 
leaflets, and corrects all exercises carefully. 
Further details may be given next month, 
but all interested — and all are invited to be 
interested — should address Mr. Wight at once. 
THE GRAY MEMORIAL BOTANICAL 
CHAPTER. 
It gives us great pleasure to present the 
following most encouraging report from 
Chapter 2, and to congratulate the Chapter 
upon its growth and excellent work : 
Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter or the 
Agassiz Association. 
Owosso, Mich., Jan. 6, 1890. 
This Chapter Avas organized in December, 1S87, 
with ten members. Its objects and methods have 
been given from time to time in the Swiss Cross. 
During the past year it has grown steadily, and 
now numbers forty-three members, living in twenty 
States and Territories. Seven of the members 
occupy chairs of science in various colleges. Of 
the remainder, many are students or teachers, but a 
considerable number are occupied with secular 
affairs, and make the study of botany their favorite 
recreation. Phanerogamic botany has, of course, 
received the most attention from the Chapter, each 
member of which is required to write a report each 
quarter. As the members represent so varied floras, 
and as many of their reports have been illustrated 
by pen and ink sketches, they have been very inter- 
esting, some being worthy of publication. At 
present, one member is studying the ferns of central 
Maryland; the President is especially interested in 
sedges; two members are studying fungi; another, 
the algiE of the South Californian coast; another, 
lichens. One member studied mosses last summer 
under Prof. Barnes, of Madison, Wis. Much of tlie 
work has been the study and comparison of local 
floras, which has already resulted in many rare 
"finds." A serious obstacle to the prosperity of 
the Chapter has been the irregularity of receiving 
[Written for "The Out-Door Worlil."] 
A PAIR OF COLORADO ROBINS. 
BY RUTH II. SPRAY, 
Of the Agassiz Association. 
Whether or not it is true, as has been said, that 
our American robin follows civilization, I do know 
that when we first came to this Colorado valley, in 
the spring of 'Si, we watched in vain for the robin's 
note. Three years later, we were gladdened one 
spring morning by the unmistakable song that car- 
ried us back to our childhood days in the old orchard 
at home. Since then they have never failed us, and 
are becoming more plentiful. However, right here 
at our home we have never seen but one pair in a 
season, although we can have no evidence that it is 
the same pair, and they never build in one tree 
twice. I think we prize them most for their music; 
but last spring our robins showed so much confi- 
dence in us, in a time when they were in great 
adversity, that I want to tell it to the readers of 
"The Out-Door World." 
Our house stands in a grove of pinon pine,— a 
low, wide-branching evergreen, very suitable for 
nest-building,— and many varieties of birds make 
their homes with us. We knew from their move- 
ments about where the robins had built, but we had 
never located the tree. One day a hired man was 
set at trimming some of the trees in the inclosure 
not far away from the house. My husband had 
charged him to watch carefully for birds' nests, and 
especially not to touch a tree in which he might 
find a robin's nest. But, when I walked out in the 
afternoon, to give some directions about the work, 
he pointed to a nest upon the ground, and said " he 
was sorry, but he forgot to look for a nest in that 
tree until he saw the bird fly away as the limb fell to 
the ground." All but two of the eggs were broken. 
We saw the mother robin perched on a tree some 
distance away. We saw. our birds after that, sitting 
or hopping about among the trees a little. They 
seemed to be debating some question. By-and-by 
they appeared to be working. 
But one day we missed them wholly. On a limb 
of one of the trees was their partly-made nest, but 
the birds themselves were nowhere to be seen. 
They had evidently abandoned their newly-begun 
home, and whither had they gone.' The season for 
nest-building was now very far advanced, and we 
supposed they had given it up. But in a few days 
they were seen among the trees very close to the 
opposite side of the house. They were hopping 
about in a lively manner, and seemed as cheerful 
and happy as if no evil had come near. We were 
careful not to watch them too closely, lest they 
might grow discontented and leave us altogether. 
A few days after this, our little girl came running 
and calling, "Oh, mamma! mamma! come and 
see!" She led me to the tree just in front of the 
kitchen door; then, pointing straight up the trunk 
We waited a few days longer; then my husband, 
from a step-ladder, proclaimed that there were 
alre<idy two eggs in the nest. The mother bird 
soon came back, and we knew that they had fully 
settled on their new home. 
Their first attempt at rebuilding their home was 
on a projecting limb, similar in position to the one 
the axe had felled to the ground. Who can doubt 
that, after beginning this, they reasoned that it, too, 
might be cut oft'.' Their final choice was in a fork 
of the main trunk of a tree; and we like to think 
that, in choosing this tree so near to our very door, 
they believed we would protect them from the mer- 
ciless axe and its careless wielder. 
Salida, Colorado. 
[Written for "The Out-Door World."] 
THE SPRING PRELUDE. 
BY PROF. W. W. bailey, 
0/ tlte Agassiz Association Council. 
Nature is pretty much the same, year after year. 
We ourselves only forget the events of past seasons. 
A carefully-kept diary will refute many fallacies in 
regard to weather, the coming of birds, or the open- 
ing of flowers. 
So much for overture. New for the application. 
A few days ago, cold and sceptical after an unregen- 
erate March and an unpromising April, the writer 
strolled into the woods. To his surprise,— though 
he should never have been astonished,— he heard 
the hylas— or, as we say, the toads— singing in the 
marshes. And what is there like that cheerv 
sound, so pure, confident, and happy.' " Here we 
are ! " the little fellows say. "Nothing can keep us 
back. We have an engagement to meet the song- 
.sparrows, the blue-birds, and the robins. Surely 
you would not have us delay ! " And, yes— there is 
the sor^-sparrow's note, refuting the silly statement 
that American birds cannot sing. What do vou 
expect of them— a Greek chorus or a German opera .' 
Or, perhaps, we don't know what singing is ! 
There are the black-birds, too,— those jolly mug- 
wumps,— holding a convention and voting supplies. 
But, most spring-like of all signs, here are the 
hazels and alders in full, swinging tassel and golden 
pollen. Like the psalmist, now we burst into 
praise, sometimes in his language, and then in 
ours, but always in a strain triumphant and glad, 
the burden of which is that God is good ! 
What is it, we wonder, that produces this thrill of 
ecstasy at the sight of awakening Nature.' In the 
winter we often grow sombre, and half believe that 
things don't pay. We are sure that corporations 
don't, or poorly, and that life is one of Mr. Man- 
talinis' "grinds," adjective and all. But in spring, 
with the sun shining, the sky blue, the birds carol- 
ling, and flowers blooming, we are optimistic to a 
degree. The last state, induced by Nature in her 
smiling mood, we take to be the natural and better 
frame of mind. That we may not lose the phantom 
of joy, henceforth, for some months, we live in the 
woods. 
Many interesting reports and notes 
crow'led out this month to make room 
the report of the New York Convention. 
are 
for 
REPOUT.S of the Sixth Century (Chapters 
501-600) should reach the President by June 1 . 
reports in some of the divisions, some valuable I of the tree, she exclaimed, " A robin's nest ! 
All are cordially invited to join the ^Vgas- 
siz As.sociation, and all communications for 
tliis department should be addressed to Mr. 
Harlan H. Ballard, President A. A., 
Pittsfield, Mass, 
