THE OOLOGIST 



275 



out seeing it. 



The cutting of the hay marks the 

 last of the Bobolinks until the fall 

 migration begins in October, when 

 they spend a few days with us in their 

 somber Autumn colors. Then comes 

 the first real cold wave, covering the 

 land with the first white frost and 

 again I eagerly await the fifteenth day 

 of May. P. G. Howes. 



Suspended. 

 We are sorry to announce that the 

 Journal of the Maine Ornithological 

 Society has suspended publication. 

 This little visitor to our desk will be 

 missed. It contained much that was 

 interested and some things that were 

 scientifically valuable. It is a wonder 

 that the bird publications of this coun- 

 try do not receive better support, but 

 our little friend has gone to join very 

 many of its kind that have bloomed 

 for a short time and then faded away. 



Cats-Kill 'Em. 

 When this number of THE OOLO- 

 GIST reaches its readers, the nesting 

 time for small birds will be at its 

 height. Not less than seventy-five per 

 cent, of the song birds hatched in the 

 corporate limits of the towns and 

 cities of the United States are annual- 

 ly killed by cats. If you want to pre- 

 serve the birds, kill the cats. We 

 should be glad to be able to publish 

 communications from our readers to 

 the effect that they had destroyed 100,- 

 000 cats in the next thirty days. 



A Warning. 



About the time this number of THE 

 OOLOGIST reaches its subscribers, 

 some of them may be in receipt of a 

 circular letter recounting the experi- 

 ences of the writer for a number of 

 preceding years in North Dakota, and 

 may contain the following language: 



"Yes, already the fascination of that 



cooling meadow grips me and grips 

 me HARD. I must go again. The trip 

 cost from here about $52. ... I am 

 now seeking to finance this trip for 

 the coming June. I ask from each of 

 ten men, $5 each, or from each of five 

 men, $10 each. These amounts to be 

 deposited in good faith, subject to ul- 

 timate adjustments on mutually satis- 

 factory basis. 



"To the highest bidder between $25 

 and $50 will go the first set of Yellow 

 Rail taken. In addition to the cash 

 contingent, this bidder is to furnish 

 me a bonus in irreproachable sets be- 

 tween the values of fifty cents and 

 three dollars per egg, at an average 

 of Lattin's and Taylor's rates." 



Following this may be a lot more of 

 the same kind. At least there was in 

 the communication received by us last 

 spring. 



We bit! And forwarded our check 

 for Five. 



Should any of our readers bite this 

 year, they may about June 28, 1912, re- 

 ceive a personal communication read- 

 ing as follows: 



"I write to thank you for the kind 

 advance on the trip to North Dakota. 



"This was only partially successful, 

 I finding but one set of Yellow Rail in 

 two good colonies. This one set was 

 contracted for some months ago." 



If you do receive such a communica- 

 tion the chances are that you will be 

 as much disgusted as we were in not 

 being able to at least have an oppor- 

 tunity of being "the highest bidder" 

 for the "first set of Yellow Rail taken," 

 at from between $25 and $50. Per- 

 haps also you might be more or less 

 disgusted at learning that you had let 

 go of your money in answer to this 

 appeal, and then discovered after the 

 eggs had been found and taken, not 

 only that you could not bid on them, 

 but that "this one set was contracted 

 for some months ago" — even before 



