82 



THE OOLOGIST 



STRANGE! 



The peculiarly eccentric disposition 

 of some people causing them to brand 

 every one who fails to agree with their 

 individual ideas as to what is right 

 and wrong on every subject is well il- 

 lustrated in the last number of the 

 Journal of the Maine Ornithological 

 Society. There may be seen the un- 

 usual picture of a daughter unable to 

 write an obituary notice of her father 

 without taking a side swing at those 

 who may disagree with her views up- 

 on the subject of the propriety of ac- 

 cumulating a modern scientifically 

 prepared, arranged and labeled collec- 

 tion of birds eggs. This lady takes the 

 unusual occasion of an obituary ■ no- 

 tice of her father to announce that her 

 lather did not believe that "killing lit- 

 tle birds and stealing their nests" 

 never seemed to him quite the occupa- 

 tion for a man; inferentially suggest- 

 ing that the right and wrong of taking 

 of a bird's egg or killing the bird de- 

 pended entirely upon the size of the 

 bird. Some of our larger birds are the 

 most useful and valuable. 



Everybody who knew Manley Hardy 

 in his lifetime — and all who knew him, 

 respected him — were aware of the fact 

 that he was not only a naturalist of 

 ability and capacity, but that he was 

 also a collecting naturalist; and while 

 lie did net form in his lifetime, a com- 

 plete collection of North American 

 Birds eggs, yet many such specimens 

 fell to his lot, and his ccllection of 

 skins and mounted birds was well 

 known, and very large. 



"Goose News." 



April 14th an adult White-fronted 

 Goose (Anser Albifrcns gambeli) flew 

 into the enclosure of about eight acres 

 in which cur wild g^ese are kept and 

 lit. He was immediately attacked by 

 a large Canada Gander and driven off 



the earth and into the air again. Af- 

 ter circling a few times he again lit. 

 Ever since he has contentedly remain- 

 ed a semi-domesticated member of our 

 flock apparently as tame as nearly any 

 bird that we have. He flies about the 

 i^lace at will, over the fences, and 

 lights where he pleases, but never 

 goes far away, and will permit even 

 strangers to walk up to within fifty 

 feet of him while he stands quietly 

 nipping the grass. All of which shows 

 what a little kindness and a little pro- 

 tection will do for the wildest of our 

 birds. 



x\pril 21st we received word of a 

 strange bird that had been captured 

 by a coal miner, and penned up some 

 two miles southwest of Lacon. At the 

 close of business we drove down and 

 were more than surprised to find the 

 strange bird to be a perfect, healthy 

 specimen of the Blue Goose (Chen 

 caerulescens). The description given 

 us cf his coming there was as follows: 



A miner living about a mile west of 

 the Illinois river in the edge of the 

 timber, has a small enclosure around 

 his house, in which there is some do- 

 mestic poultry. One evening late, this 

 goose lit among his chickens. It had 

 been recently wing-tipped by some 

 shooter evidently along the river. He 

 was at once captured and the injured 

 portion cf the wing removed, which 

 operation ended tis ability to fiy for- 

 ever. He was later given to the man 

 who bad him when we first saw him. 

 He had then been in confinement about 

 ten days, and was already exceeding- 

 ly tame. He is now our property, and 

 seemingly perfectly contented with 

 his new home, and his new band of as- 

 sociates — about ffty wili geese of 

 eleven difCerent varieties. 



This is the second of these birds 

 that the writer has any knowledge of 

 ever having been in Marshall County. 

 The first one having been killed by 

 the writer just across the river from 

 Laccn off cf the edge of the ice in 

 1879. Editor. 



