112 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 15-No. 7 



THE 



ornithologist#o6logist 



A Monthly Map;azine of 



NATURAL HISTORY, 



ESPECIALLY DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF 



THEIR NESTS AND E(UiS, 



and to the 



INTERESTS OF NATURALISTS. 



Under the Editorial Management of 



FRANK B. WEBSTER, 

 J. PARKER NORRIS, 

 FRANK A. BATES, 



Boston, Mass. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



Boston, Mass. 



PUBLISHED AT 



FRANK B. WEBSTER'S 



N A T U R A L I S T 8' SUPPLY DEPOT, 



Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 



The O. & O. is mailed each issue to every i>aid suh- 

 soriber. If you fail to receive it. notify us. 



Brief Notes. 



A pair of young Screech Owls, the first installment 

 to bur private menagerie, were in our possession barely 

 twenty-four hours before the male "ate up his female 

 mate." 



On May 17, Wallace Homer found a nest of the 

 American Crow containing eight eggs. 



The publisher of the O. & O. was pleasantly remem- 

 bered by receiving a graduation card from D. Frank 

 Keller of the Reading, Pa., High school. We receive 

 many tokens from our subscribers. 



C. F. Newell has started for a collecting trip to the 

 West Indies. 



C. J. Maynard is writing a popular work on 

 entomology. 



Olver Davie writes that he expects to have fifty-four 

 full page illustrations to his new work on taxidermy 

 instead of fifty as advertised. 



J. T. Park, Warner, Tenn., asks where can a copy of 

 The History of Lewis an<l Clark's Expedition be 

 obtained ? 



VV. H. Foote's Semi-annual will soon be ready. 



Our black snakes are undergoing the interesting pro- 

 cess of shedding their skins. It took one about two 

 hours to complete the operation. The old skin loosened 

 about the head, and it crawled out, since it has been 

 unusually lively. A lew days since when leaving the 

 office at niglit the last act was to let all four loose. On 

 returning the next morning our office Ijoy was found 

 in a state of consternation. The snakes are not the 

 mild creatures they were in cold weather. They tvill 

 strike in a vicious manner. 



A pair of young foxes that were recently sent in to 

 us have liecome quite tame. They will allow the writer 

 to handle them, and are very playful. 



One of our correspondants writes that he notices the 

 gingerly manner in which some express their opinion 

 on the (juestion of the change of the common names of 

 our birds. No one should hesitate to freely express his 

 opinion. 



Raleigh, N. C. When snake meets snake and each 

 snake proceeds to swallow the opposite snake, begin- 

 ning with the rear anatomy, the result is a double back 

 action, hoop snake. S. R. 



O. A. Jenkins, one of the leading Boston furriers, is 

 the most enthusiastic man in his line that we ever met. 

 He makes a speciality of obtaining rare freaks. Being 

 a near neighbor, whenever he gets anything fine he 

 usually drops in with it. A few days since he had some 

 extraordinary skins, a dozen skunk's, all of whi(di were 

 pale bufl' with a finely defined white V, so soft and 

 beautiful that it was hard to realize what they were; 

 two coon skins that were nearly black, and an otter of 

 a delicate buff. A jacket and muff' made of leopard skin 

 a few days since attracted a great deal of attention to 

 his windows. 



GeorgeMorse, while driving thro^xgh Hudson, Mass., 

 on .Tune 9, noticed a woodchuck crossing the road. It 

 ran up a white oak tree about 12 inches in diameter, 

 and located on the first limb about 15 feet from the 

 ground. He was unable to reach it with his whip and 

 resorted to stones, securing his game. We think that 

 it is unusual for that animal to climb a tree. 



Onr reader.* must not be impatient on account of 

 the delay in ])ublishing articles. Remember that our 

 space is limited and lists especially have to be well 

 sandwiched. 



The postman hands us a photograph of Geo. G. Cant- 

 well and a Rocky Mountain lion. You make a good 

 pair, accept our thanks. 



We had a very pleasant call from W. O. Emerson, 

 who is on his way to Paris. Mr. Emerson showed us a 

 large series of sketches thut he has made of int«resting 

 features in his locality on the Pacific Coast. He left 

 with us a few choice sets of eggs t.aken by him person- 

 ally on the Farallone Islands. 



June Sth, a Redheailed Nuthatch was oliserved at 

 Hyde Park, Mass. 



A Yellow-throated Vireo is nesting on a Pine tree 

 quite close to a window at the residence of C. M. Ham- 

 mond, Hyde Park, Mass. 



F. B. Webster's museum will be completed August 1. 

 J. M. South wick, the well-known natural history 

 flealer, is recuperating at Rangeley I^akes, Maine. 



If there is a sudden termination of brief notes it 

 will be the result of sporting glee of Harry Austen's 

 pet bear that we expect daily at our museum. 



Raleigh, N. C, .Tune 7,1800: Season up to date rea- 

 sonably satisfactory. Among our most noteworthy 

 takes are nine sets of Yellow-throated Warbler, seven- 

 teen of Pine Warbler, four of Prairie Warbler, one 

 of Broad-winged Hawk, and one of Rough-winged 

 Swallow as well as sets of common species. Last 

 week we had two eggs brought to us which so 

 far as we could make out were Black Rail. We 

 took the first full i>liimaged J Baltimore Oriole we 

 had ever seen here this spring, our first female speci- 

 men of the Least Bittern, and also one Mountain 

 Solitary Vireo, but nothing else out of the common. 



H. H. and C. S. Bnmley. 



