May, 1883.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



35 



Our Publications, 



I like your magazine on account of its 

 practical information and freshness of char- 

 acter. 



Being an immoderate lover of birds and 

 animals for pets, (so far as I can see them 

 thrive when domesticated or confined.) I 

 am always seeking to know something 

 about them. I had occasion to look over a 

 lot of your former publications a short time 

 since and I wondered where so much of 

 just that kind of material was found, when 

 I think what an amount of comfort I took 

 in reading 

 "Familiar Science and Fancier's Journal." 



I wonder that it should have failed. At 

 present I feel lost without more of that 

 kind of reading and don't know where to 

 find it that is fresh and instructive. 



[No one took greater pleasure in Famil- 

 iar Science than we did, and it was a suc- 

 cess so long as we could give it our per- 

 sonal attention ; but when we were called 

 to other duties so that we could no longer 

 open and answer the correspondence, its 

 downward career financially commenced 

 until its suspension in 1879. The six bound 

 volumes are in our library. They cost us 

 many thousands of dollars but we are 

 proud of them. They taught all to be hu- 

 mane to animal kind, land good fellowship, 

 while the iron heel of fearlessness was 

 brought down on all frauds who tried to 

 prey on Fanciers and Naturalists ; and 

 were we younger it would again appear 

 precisely as when it suspended — but that 

 day is past. — Ed.] 



Golden Eagle Captured. — March 1st, a 

 fine specimen of this bird was brought to 

 a taxidermist here to be mounted. The 

 person who obtained it claimed to have 

 knocked it over with a club as it sat on the 

 fence. The skin showed no marks except 

 a heavy contusion on back of head. Up 

 to this date I have marked down five nests 

 of Least Tit. — A. D. Butter4eld, San 

 Jose, Cal, March 13, 1883. 



Oological. 



I think M. Day Murphy. Jr., in the Feb- 

 ruary number of O. and O., misunder- 

 stands the meaning of the word " set," as 

 applied to a nest or clutch of eggs (?) His 

 so-called set of eight (8) Eobin's eggs were 

 two (2) separate sets. He might just as 

 well call the three (3) sets of Phoebe's a 

 set of fourteen (14) eggs. Eggs taken 

 from a nest one by one as fast as they are 

 laid until the bird stops laying cannot be 

 called a set of eggs. Green Herons in this 

 locality lay from four (4) to five eggs to a 

 set. Clai^per Rails average from 1.82 X 

 1.25 to 1.63 X 1.14; Virginia Eailsfrom 1.80 

 X.96 to 1.23 X. 90 ; Sora Rails, 1.35x1. to 

 1.15 X .85, according to Samuels. From 

 my own experience the Virginia Rails are 

 always larger than the Sora, lighter in 

 color and with fewer and smaller markings. 

 Clapper Rails are ovoidal in shape, tapering 

 slightly toward smaller end. but not sharply 

 pointed, ground color, a dirty cream or 

 drab, with a few spots of reddish brown 

 mingled with jiurple shell marks, mostly 

 on and about the larger end. Virginia and 

 Sora Rails are similar in shape to the above, 

 but much smaller in size, the Virginia hav- 

 ing a light cream ground with none of the 

 olivaceous tint so common in the Sora. 

 The markings of the former are small, of 

 a reddish brown, with purple shell spots 

 scattered over the surface, but more nu- 

 merous near the larger end. The Sora is 

 darker in color, and with the olive tint 

 before mentioned, though I have specimens 

 which are a dark, rich cream, without any 

 olive. The spots are of two shades of 

 brown, one overlaying the other and with 

 the same purj^le spots or blotches. None 

 of the Rails, to my knowledge, are ever so 

 thickly spotted as to have the ground color 

 entirely concealed. — Snoirdon Howland, 

 Ne\t^port, R. I. 



Arrivals. March 1st, Bluebirds arrive; 

 15th, Fox Sparrows ; 16th, Song Sparrows 

 sing ; 17th, first general singing. Red- 

 winged Blackbirds come. — II. D. Minot, 



