THE OOLOGIST. 



187 



without hearing the bird's €all, a nest 

 on a ledge having a bird possibly of 

 either of the above species near 'by, 

 only the most intimate verification 

 would induce me to pronounce as to 

 the identity in question. Any careful 

 observer would 'bear me out in tak- 

 ing this position. Contemporary rec- 

 ords are so full of snap-shot identifica- 

 tions and second-hand identifications 

 that one is entirely justified in re- 

 quiring ample verification in any case 

 of doubt. One can well afford to be 

 ■captious in the quest of truth, that he 

 •should occasionally err, through over- 

 sight, may be forgiven. 



This question is of so hurning an 

 importance that I venture to cumber 

 the pages of the Oologist with this ex- 

 planation. I could tell your readers 

 of items appearing in Condor, Bird- 

 Lore and The Auk which, on the face 

 of them, will not stand for critical 

 scrutiny. The same is true of pub- 

 lished records in iboth Davie and in 

 the later work covering the same 

 field. One can find errors, more or 

 less grave, in almost every other page 

 of these two ibooks. To call atten- 

 tion to these, to run the risk of being 

 considered naggy and over-critical in 

 the incessant demands one must make 

 for verification is deliberately worth 

 the while ; if only it lead even a few of 

 our younger 'bird students to a habit- 

 ual exactness and criticalness of spir- 

 it, with regard to their own investi- 

 gations. If, as I know to be true, 

 there are a few men of national 

 repute, as bird students, who cannot 

 verify a few of their own past pub- 

 lished records, it well 'becomes the 

 smaller fry among us, (including the 

 writer hereof), to be humble to a de- 

 gree. 



My own estimate of Messrs. Rock- 

 well and Warren needs no other com- 

 ment than this : Every germaine note, 

 published by either, has been incorpo- 



rated, long since, in the manuscript of 

 "Nesting Ways." Mr. Rockwell's val- 

 uable article on the Western and Cas- 

 sin King-'birds had been cited, given 

 full personal credit, some time before 

 the September Oologist reached me. I 

 here tender to both the gentlemen in 

 question sincere thanks for the addi- 

 tions to our knowledge which are 

 made in the Rockwell-Warren article 

 which has called forth the present re- 

 joinder. Neither of these observers 

 need fear any outbreak of what 

 Browning so aptly called "goose-criti- 

 cism," if only they will take the pains, 

 hereafter, to assure readers of their 

 articles of something more fully en- 

 titled to ones respect than mere bird- 

 in-the-bush indentification. 



P. B. PEABODY. 



The House Sparrows as Flycatchers. 



Has this plebian of the city streets 

 aspired to act the role of the aristo- 

 cratic Flycatcher? Such seems to 

 be the fact, for at times, certain of 

 these individuals can be seen to rise 

 from the chimneys and telegraph 

 poles, hover in the air over some in- 

 sect, and return to the vantage point 

 in the precise manner of the Kingbird 

 or Pewee, when in search of meals. 



If, in conjunction with their servi- 

 ces as street scavengers, these obnox- 

 ious pests would undertake the duties 

 of followers of aerial prey, although 

 it is doubtful if the house-fly has any 

 aerial aspirations, they would do 

 much to ameliorate the conditions 

 caused by their extreme aggressive- 

 ness. 



I was witness of a case where two 

 of these tatter-de-malions attempted 

 to capture a June-bug much too large 

 for their efforts. I was apprised of 

 the disturbance by the fall of the in- 

 sect near where I was standing, fol- 

 lowed by the two birds. The defensive 



