THE OOLOGIST 



327 



■-constructing its nest differently in Illi- 

 nois than when in Louisiana, or in one 

 state nesting on the ground while iu an- 

 other state it may build in bushes or 

 trees. Birds of a particular species may 

 vary iu color and in diet with change 

 of districts, and very frequently have a 

 different song for different seasons. If 

 you are a farmer's boy and your daily 

 occupation leads you out where birds 

 may be found on all sides of you and 

 even beneath your feet, count yourself 

 a favored mortal and use the opportun- 

 ity to form the closest intimacy with the 

 birds of your locality. Compare their 

 habits with what you read of them iu 

 your father's agricultural papers and 

 reports and in your books about birds. 

 Observation and reading are yoke-fel- 

 lows in ornithology as well as in other 

 departments of knowledge. 



Bird music can not be learned by 

 leading about it. No set of syllables 

 can ever suggest the melody of a bird 

 voice or the quality of the tones uttered 

 by an exultaut songster in its own free 

 wilds. If one would recognize the var- 

 ious voices iu the myriad choir of bird- 

 land, he must study them separately 

 in their setting of held, grove, and for- 

 est. Along the openly wooded streams 

 can be heard the Song Sparrow, the 

 Kingfisher, the Cardinal,and the Phoebe. 

 In the open meadows are the Field and 

 Vesper Sparrows, the Meadowlark, the 

 Bobolink.the Bob-white, and the Black- 

 throated Bunting or Dickcissel. In the 

 orchards one can study the Grackles,the 

 Orchard Oriole, the Wren, the King- 

 bird, the Cuckoos, the Vireos, and the 

 Robin. Along the hedges sing the 

 Brown Thrasher, the Chipping Spar- 

 row tne Catbird, and the Goldfinch. 



In the higher shade trees are the Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak, the Yellow Warbler, 

 the Baltimore Oriole, the Warbling 

 Vireo,aud the splendid Tanager. From 

 the bushes arise the notes of the Mary- 

 land Yellow-throat,the Yellow- breasted 

 Chat, and the Towhee. In the woods 



are noted the Blue Jay, the Chickadees, 

 the Woodpeckers, the rucligo Bunting, 

 and the Wood Pewee, besides the many 

 other species found in any and all of the 

 above situations. These are only a few 

 of the myriads of the feathered tribes 

 awaiting one's aquaintauce and study, 

 forming an inexhaustiable field, varying 

 with every locality and every season. 

 Each particular region invites and de- 

 mands constant watch and scruting lest 

 any of its features should be overlooked 

 or neglected, or any of its characteristic 

 notes be uttered with no appreciative 

 ear to receive them or no sympathetic 

 hand to record them. 



P. M. SlLLOWAY. 



Collecting, viz: - Oological- 



The Oologist is probably the 

 most popular journal of Natural 

 History published in this country. 

 Hence it is probably the best key we 

 have to the ideas, sentiments and 

 working methods of the rising genera- 

 tion of oologists and ornithologists and 

 to their progress and retrogression. 



First as to the progress— A subscrip- 

 ton list of twenty-five or thirty hundred 

 names means some twenty hundred 

 people who occasionally at least, come 

 in contact with nature and in whom 

 there must be regenerated some of 

 that love for nature which is the rightful 

 inheritance even of the child of the city. 

 Therefore in that respect the increase 

 which we see in their number is a truly 

 great gain. 



As to the retrogression — several 

 writers in recent numbers of the ''Ool- 

 gist" have, called attention to it— it is the 

 growing spirit of "collecting. " Collect- 

 ing for collecting's sake, collecting to 

 increase the collection ; collecting be- 

 ing the beginning and end of these would- 

 be Oologists. Oology is the study of eggs, 

 or better, the shells of eggs. How little 

 these collectors tell us about their stud- 

 ies of the eggs after they have once 



