96 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 10-No. 6 



What is the Best Gun for Collectors. — 

 In your April number of the"0. and O." I notice 

 in the article headed "Hints to Collectors," this 

 sentence, "Do not buy a cane gun or one with a 

 skeleton stock, they are a delusion and a snare." 

 In regard to the former I have nothing to say 

 but as the article referred to was penned by 

 Johnnie and not by John, I infer that he is not 

 too old to learn. 



I have a Stevens' 38-bore shot gun with skele- 

 ton stock, with which I have taken a Broad- 

 winged Hawk, two Grebes, a Kingfisher, besides 

 numerous Jack-snipe and other smaller birds, and 

 could not be tempted to carry a full stock gun 

 while collecting. And in regard to Johnnie's 

 f 35 outfit, mine would not exceed $15, and I use 

 it in preference to a $55, 16 guage double breech- 

 loader which I have. — E. V. Clemens, A/i-sonid, Ct. 



Alijgatohs. — -We have during the past week 

 obtained two Alligators within six miles of here, 

 one 9 It. 3 in. in length and the other 8 ft. 3 in. 

 Until we procured one last Fall of 10 ft. 6 in., 

 they were considered almost unknown around 

 here. We hear of other large ones about. Is 

 not this about their northern limit, and can any 

 of your readers give instances of their being ob- 

 tained further north than this ? — Clarke & Movf/nn, 

 New Benie, N. C 



New York and Science. 



An intereBting address was recently delivered by Dr. C. 

 H. Merriam at the dinner given by the Linnaean Society to 

 Mr. J. A. Allen on the occasion of his coming to New York 

 to at*eiime the curatorship of birds and mammals at the Cen- 

 tral Park Museum. In the course of his remarks, Dr. Mer- 

 riam alluded lo scientific work in New York early in its 

 hibtory, and to the fact that naturalists and scholars who 

 have labored here failed to receive that support from the 

 people which is so essential to permanent progress. Con- 

 tinuing he said: *'That this cannot be attributed to lack of 

 ability, enthusiasm and earnestness on the part of the work- 

 ers themselves is clear from their character and writings. 

 Of the founders and early members of the Philosophical 

 Society, and of the Lyceum of Natural History, but one 

 naturalist remains, the veteran ornithologist, Mr. tieorge N. 

 Lawrence, who has spent a fruitful lifetime within the pre- 

 cincts of this city. His name and labors are known and 

 honored all over Europe, and yet but a few of our citizens 

 are aware of the extent and importance of his writings. 

 He has outlived his comrades, and for many years has 

 toiled alone, away from the stimulus and support of sym- 

 pathetic associates. It is impossible to disguise the fact that 

 these men— men whose untiring labors have left a lasting 

 impress upon the science of the nineteenth century— have 

 been unappreciated by their fellow-citizens. The city and 

 the times were not yet ready. The first great effort to convert 

 New York into a center of learning and culture failed. 

 The Philosophical Society has long since passed out of ex- 

 istence, and the old Lyceum of Natural History has been 

 transformed into the present Academy, which is devoted 

 chiefly to the physical sciences. Leaving out of considera- 

 tion the more or less constant progress that has been made 

 in the physical sciences, literature and the fine arts, and 



confining ourselves to the branches of knowledge c 

 ly spoken of under the somewhat indefinite heading, 

 • Natural History,' it may be said that the first period of 

 activity reached its maximum development about fifty years 

 ago, when the Lyceum was in its most flourishing condi- 

 tion, and that the second period of activity began with the 

 organization of Linnsean Society in March, 18T8. Between 

 the two was an interval of general inactivity, broken only 

 by the labors of Torrey, Lawrence, Prime, Sanderson, Smith 

 and that distinguished explorer and naturalist, Professor 

 John S. Newberry, now one of the most eminent of living 

 geologists and paleontologists, who for the past nineteen 

 years has honored our city by his presence. For some time 

 Professor Whitfield has been at work upon the fossil inver- 

 tebrates in the American Museum of Natural History of 

 this city, and has published several valuable bulletins con- 

 taining the results of his labors. This museum has long 

 been in possession of mammals and birds of value. To 

 guard these from injury, and also {let it to be hoped) to pro- 

 mote original work, its trustees have finally secured the 

 services of one of the foremost of American naturalists. 

 Foreign naturalists have hailed this movement with expres- 

 sions of unfeigned joy, and we can but regard it with the 

 utmost satisfaction. We congratulate ourselves both upon 

 the accession of bo distinguished a person as Mr. Allen, and 

 upon the significance of the fact of his appointment. The 

 citizens of New York, surfeited with the cultivation of 

 purely commercial interests, have come at length to look 

 for something which will adorn their city with more lasting 

 monuments— which will enable it to take rank with the 

 other great cities of the world in promoting the advance- 

 ment and diffusion of knowledge by the encouragement of 

 natural science. The more thoughtful of them are slowly 

 but surely arriving at the conviction that no true progress 

 in higher civilzation can be made until science, literature 

 and the arts receive the hearty support of the people and of 

 the commonwealth.— i-'ore*? and Stream. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Peculiar Eggs of Scoi's Trichopsis. On the 11th inet. 

 I took a nest of Scopn trichopsis, containing Ave eggs. In 

 size and shape they are identical with several other clutches 

 of the S. trichopsis now in my possession, but instead of 

 being white in color they resemble the eggs of the FaJvo 

 sparverius, being blotched all over with dark brown spots, 

 especially towards the larger end around which the spots 

 and blotches run in great profusion. Now tell me, please, 

 could the eggs so marked be the result of a cross between 

 the two birds above named ? I am not mistaken in the eggs 

 being those of the .S'. trickojysin, inasmuch as I took a fe- 

 male Scops off of the nest. I also, the same day, took 

 several nests of the F. spaveri^is from the same vicinity and 

 both tho.-e of the Scops and Sparverius were taken out of 

 Woodpecker's holes in the (Sahuara) Giant Cactus, which 

 fact led me to think that perhaps the eggs in question may 

 have been the result of a cross between the two,— Herbert 

 Brown, Tticson^ Ariz., April 22, 18S5. 



[Perhaps some of our readers may be in possession of 

 facts which would throw light on this matter.— Ed.] 



Laroe Set of Barn Owl's Eggs. P. E. Kent, Poway, 

 Cal., writes us, " While on a collecting tour on April Ist, I 

 found a fine set of Barn Owl's eggs, (Aluco Hammejis anier- 

 icanna ) The nest was placed in a Sycamore tree about 

 twenty-five feet high, where a large limb had been blown 

 out, and having rotted had formed a hollow one foot deep 

 and two feet in diameter. The eggs were eleven in number 

 and were in all stages of incubation, from perfectly fresh 

 tn those that were well advanced, but by carefulness in 

 blowing, I succeeded in getting them in prime condition. 

 Would like to ask if any one has a larger set?" 



