THE OOLOGIST ^(l?,), \qo^ 



■225 



is well known to all leading oologists 

 in North America first started collect- 

 ing birds eggs many years ago at 

 Smithsburo, Illinois. Later he remov- 

 ed to Greenville, where he continued 

 his explorations. Then he removed to 

 St. Louis and while there added very 

 largely to his collection, both by pur- 

 chase, exchange and personal collect- 

 ing trips extending into Northen Min- 

 nesota, Southern Texas and Arizona. 

 Of late years Mr. Smith has done lit- 

 tle in oology and is now located at 

 Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he 

 is engaged in the jewelry business. 

 His entire collection has lately be- 

 come the property of the proprietor of 

 this magazine. Mr. Smith prided him- 

 self while gathering this colection to- 

 gether on tlie careful preparation of 

 the specimens. 



Bird Accidents. 



Mr. Rockey's note in the last Oolo- 

 gist regarding the accidental "hang- 

 ing" of a Green Heron, prompts me to 

 record the somewhat similar fate of 

 a Robin, which I found a few days 

 ago hanging head downward from 

 the branch of a shade tree in 

 Ithaca. Its feet were entangled 

 in a quantity of cotton twine with 

 which it had evidently begun the 

 construction of a nest on the branch 

 from which it hung. The condition 

 of the bird indicated that it probably 

 perished in the spring or summer. 



Another similar case, in which a 

 young House Wren figured, came to 

 my attention last summer. The House 

 Wrens had reared a brood of nestlings 

 in a bird box and the young had been 

 out of the nest two or three days; yet 

 one of the parent birds occasionally 

 returned to the box with food. This 

 led me to investigate and a young 

 Wren was found a prisoner bound to 



the nest by one foot which was hope- 

 lessly caught in the materials of the 

 nest. The bird seemed strong and 

 vigorous, but its struggles to free it- 

 self were in vain. Examination show- 

 ed that the toes of this foot were gone, 

 possibly had been amputated by the 

 bird as a last, though fruitless means 

 of escape. It was carefully extract- 

 ed from the nest and before night had 

 joined its brothers on the wing. 



A. D. Dubois.. 



Virgil W. Owens, 



We have never had the pleasure of 

 either meeting or knowing Mr. Owens 

 by correspondence. His work, how- 

 ever, is well known to us. In years 

 gone by, he collected largely in South- 

 ern California, Arizona and New Mexi- 

 co and in our thirty year;- of experi- 

 ence in handling Oological specimens, 

 we can truthfully say woi'iave never 

 seen specimens from the 1 id of any 

 collector which averages neat in 



their preparation as those accompani- 

 ed by the datas signed, Virgil W. Ow- 

 ens. 



Mr. Owens is certainly a small hole 

 crank; be it to his credit. We have 

 many, many hawks eggs in our collec- 

 tion prepared by Mr. Owens blown 

 with a No. O drill, and smaller eggs 

 with holes in proportion. In mark- 

 ing his specimens, Mr. Owens has 

 been exquisitely neat and it is a pleas- 

 ure to testify to his careful painstak- 

 ing work along these lines. Without 

 doubt, a man with habits of this char- 

 acter in this line of work would be 

 equally painstaking and conscientious 

 in the every day affairs of life. 



Appreciated. 



More than thirty-five percent, of the 

 members of the Cooper Ornithological 

 Club of California are at this time 



