THE OOLOGIST 



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87 



dent can afford to disregard. It is not 

 always a question of a difference of a 

 tone or two in color; nor yet of a con- 

 stant difference of a thousandth of an 

 inch in the length of a tarsus. In a 

 note upon which I cannot, at this mo- 

 ment, lay my hands, a recent writer 

 has aptly said; that if constant differ- 

 ences in habit and habitat are to be 

 disregarded, in the differentiating of 

 subspecies, all differentiation becomes 

 mockery. As an example: the writer 

 firmly believes in the validity-subspe- 

 cific of the "Alma" (Olive-backed) 

 Thrush of the Rocky Mountain Re- 

 gion. Fundamental differences of 

 nesting habit maintain; and are enti- 

 tled to consideration. (The story is, 

 however, too long for telling, here and 

 now.) But the moral is; that every 

 observer should be doing stalwart and 

 careful work in his own field. Where 

 necessary, permits ought to be secur- 

 ed for the enabling of the taking of 

 type-specimens, for the region in ques- 

 tion; and vastly more of attention 

 ought to be devoted, in our collecting, 

 to biological phenomena than most of 

 us were ever taught to devote, in our 

 'prentice days. Two lines of special 

 study ought, at this very time, to be 

 engaging the attention of bird stu- 

 dents in most of the Southern States, 

 namely, the establishing of the south- 

 ern boundry line of the breeding 

 Range of the Robin; and the estab- 

 lishment of corresponding metes and 

 bounds for the various races of the 

 Seaside Sparrows of the South Atlan- 

 tic and Gulf Coasts. Right here, alone, 

 is ample and most delightful scope for 

 an entire season's study, on the part 

 of young students that are favorably 

 situated, with reference to these two 

 Genera. And surely, not one of the 

 older members of the Oological Fra- 

 ternity that have grown up on The 

 Oologist but will cheerfully render all 

 help in their power concerning such 



matters. Meanwhile, such young stu- 

 dents of bird life as can afford it 

 ought to buy and critically study the 

 Check List of 1910. (As every one 

 knows, the Check List now is, and al- 

 ways must be, "in solution"; yet it is, 

 in itself, a real solution of many and 

 intricate problems.) 



P. B. Peabody. 



Unusual Nesting of the Chipping 

 Sparrow. 



On September 1, 1906, while my Un- 

 cle Albert Miller was removing the 

 dried bunches of peppers from the 

 walls of a wagon shed on his farm at 

 Sandiford, Philadelphia County, Pa., 

 where they hung for almost a year, he 

 discovered in one of the bunches, a 

 Chipping Sparrow's nest containing 

 young almost fledged. He left the 

 clump containing the nest undisturb- 

 ed until the young had flown. The 

 nest was not far inside of the shed, 

 which had the front uncovered; was 

 close to the ceiling and the wall, well 

 hidden in the dry cluster, and twenty 

 feet from the ground. The shed ad- 

 .ioins the truck house and was used 

 daily. 



For three years the Chippies have 

 nested in the pepper plants hung up 

 every fall to dry and preserve in the 

 wagon shed, but never as late as this. 

 Formerly they bred in the honey- 

 suckle vines that used to cover the 

 porch of the house, but since its re- 

 moval, they recoursed to the pepper 

 plants, rather than desert the farm 

 house where they had nested for years 

 for there were no other suitable 

 places for them to nest close to the 

 house except in big trees (maple) and 

 why they should prefer the pepper 

 plants to fruit trees not far away from 

 the residence, is best known to the 

 birds. 



But now, after 1906, the Chippy 



