22 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 8-No. 3 



have any wide-awake correspondents in the 

 field, and had but a limited library of ref- 

 erence. We are sorry that he has made 

 such poor use of the State's money, and 

 yet Doctor J. M. Wharton, the author, 

 states that it has been six years in j)repara- 

 tion. The time has been badly spent and 

 he has lost a golden opportunity of doin^ 

 a good work for the ornithologists of 

 America. 



"Wood Ducks." — We have received an 

 uncolored copy of Mr. Sheppard's " Wood 

 Ducks," which is a phototype by F. Gute- 

 kunst in the best style of the art, and is 

 from a fine colored drawing by Mr. Shep- 

 pard, which we had the pleasure of seeing 

 at the Academy of Natural Science. The 

 Wood Ducks are a beautiful group and 

 very life-like. Our readers will do well to 

 secure a coj^y of this work at the low price 

 at which uncolored copies are offered. 



Doctor Coues Said It. — The Nuttall 

 Bulletin for January opens with a very 

 pretty gossipy ariicle by Dr. Coues, adver- 

 tising the new edition of his "Key to 

 North American Birds," which is fast ap- 

 proaching completion. In this article the 

 Dr. "suggests the propriety of calling a 

 Congress of American Ornithologists to 

 discuss, vote upon, and decide each case in 

 which the Doctors disagree." We have no 

 room to discuss the question in this num- 

 ber, but simply for the present to place it 

 on record, for it is a very important mat- 

 ter. The Doctor comi^liments the O. and 

 O. through something with a fearful name. 

 We hunted it up, and found it was a bird, 

 and with a lovely English name. Why, 



Dr., how could you make such a mistake? 



♦ 



Ipswich Sparrows. 



On Nov. 21, '82, I had occasion to go to 

 Ram Island Beach. This is a wide sandy 

 beach some fifty acres in extent, and cov- 

 ered with beach grass, and in some parts 

 with bushes and small cedars. As I was 

 about to leave I saw several sparrows fly 

 up and alight on the cedars, and at the 



first glance it struck me that they were 

 Ipswich Sparrows, and as if to convince 

 me a Song Sparrow flew up beside one of 

 them, showing off the large size and pale 

 tints of the former very markedly. Hav- 

 ing no gun I reluctantly left, but returned 

 in the afternoon, and after some hunting 

 secured all three of them. Two of them 

 measured 6^ inches in length ; the 3d 6 in. 

 Since then I have searched the beach over 

 carefully but found no more specimens of 

 Passercultis prlnceps. Saw flocks of Les- 

 ser Redpolls on Dec. 5th and 6th. 



Pine Finches were abundant here in the 

 Fall. Mr. Worthington secured sixteen at 

 one shot. Some small boys killed two. — 



Moses B. Grlffing, Shelter Island, N. Y. 



■ ♦^ 



Capt. Chas. E. Bendire, U. S. A. 



Under date of Dec. 29th we have a long 

 letter from the Captain detailing many of 

 the duties at his new post, which seems so 

 far to quite fully occupy his time ; so much 

 so that what spare time he does get is en- 

 tirely taken up collecting and making spee= 

 iraens, so that instead of writing notes for 

 our readers, he is making them to be used 

 in the future. We will make a few extracts 

 from his letter such as will interest our 

 readers generally : " However with all 

 the drawbacks I am making some head- 

 way in my collection, and am getting some 

 good things. I have now catalogued 375 

 skins since my arrival here, and 300 of 

 these I have made since Sept 1st, besides 

 a great many alcoholic specimens not 

 counted in the above. We are having a 

 mild Winter, the snow is only about a foot 

 deep, when in other seasons it has been 

 three feet deep at this time. Birds are 

 scarce — about twenty sj^ecies comprise the 

 more common Winter residents. The wa- 

 ter birds are too far off for me to trouble 

 them much — the nearest point on the lake 

 is ten miles. I had hojied to find some 

 rare Winter birds and plenty of them as 

 at Cami3 Harney in '75 and '76, but there 

 are very few, and even Owls and Hawks 



