66 



THE OOLOGIST 



was unable to identify them. He un- 

 fortunately lost the data in some way 

 and to some extent lost its identity. 



I never gave up hope and have at 

 last found a man who after seeing 

 them at once named them Golden- 

 fronted Woodpeckers. 



This man lives in Texas and knows 

 what he is talking about and says it 

 is a typical set of eggs. 



Mr. B. H. Short saw the eggs but 

 he failed to give me the information 

 I desired. 



I am glad I found out what they are 

 but am a little surprised that neither 

 Mr. Short or Mr. Court could tell me 

 at first the correct name of them. 



E. J. Darlington. 



The New Short List. 

 In recent issues of THE OOLOGIST 



we ran an ad for Ernest H. Short ad- 

 vertising "A Corrected Edition" of the 

 Lattin 1905 Price List. We bought one 

 and had we seen the thing before the 

 ad. appeared, it never would have been 

 admitted to these columns. This 

 "Edition" is nothing more or less than 

 the 1905 list with a few more or less 

 unintelligible pages of very poorly 

 printed new matter bound in the front, 

 and some few name changes pasted in 

 through the catalogue. 



We very much doubt if our friends 

 to whom it is said in the text, the com- 

 piler of this "corrected edition" is un- 

 der obligations for assistance in pro- 

 ducing it, will be proud of having their 

 names associated with such a produc- 

 tion. 



Mr. Short should not have attempt- 

 ed to foist such a thing on the bird 

 men of the country. It will not pay in 

 the long run. We all know we need a 

 new price list, but we need a real 

 one, and that we will have before so 

 very much longer. 



Albinos. 



On November 23rd, 1914, two partly 

 Albino Northwestern Red-wings were 

 observed about two miles south of Til- 

 lamook. These were in company with 

 a larger flock of Red-wings and Brew- 

 er's Blackbirds. 



I collected on December 18th, about 

 six miles southeast of town, a singu- 

 larly marked Alaskan Hermit Thrush, 

 the chin and fore part of the head be- 

 ing pure white. 



A female Brewer's Blackbird was 

 collected from a flock on January 12th, 

 1915. The tail, back and underparts 

 of this bird were spotted with white. 



Alex Walker. 

 Hemlock, Oregon. 



There . are measurements of three 

 Red-headed Woodpecker's eggs which 

 I gathered at Richmond, Ky., in the 

 spring of 1909. They are 1,74, .92, 

 .70, 79 and 63. You will notice the 

 great difference in the amount of size. 



I have never seen or heard of such 

 an extreme difference before in eggs. 

 All three were taken from the same 

 nest in a hollow limb and the parent 

 bird observed to fly out. 



Byron C. Marshall. 



The American Merganser. 

 (Merganser Americanus) 



This is the largest of the Mergan- 

 sers, commonly called the Sawbill, 

 Sheldrake, Goosander and Fish Duck. 

 In April soon after arriving from their 

 winter quarters, he accompanied by 

 his mate, start looking for a suitable 

 nesting site in some hollow tree stand- 

 ing in the water (the trees of which 

 have been killed by the rising water 

 each year in early spring), which is 

 usually in some secluded spot in a bay 

 bordered by heavily timbered woods. 



They are very noisy birds at this 

 time with their loud squak- 

 ing and I have often seen them early 



