THE OOLOGIST 7; 
The Poor Cowbird. 
In attendance upon a meeting of the 
Cooper Club at Los Angeles, a few 
days ago, the Editor listened to a 
very readable paper on the alleged 
discovery of a new sub-species of the 
Cowbird inhabiting the arid lands of 
Utah and Nevada; 
substantially all the lands lying be- 
presumably also 
tween Sierra Nevada and Rocky Moun- 
tains. 
The January issue of the Auk con- 
tains another article upon the alleged 
discovery of another sub-species of 
Cowbird inhabiting Northwest Canada, 
We extend our sympathy to the Cow- 
bird. 
species will now be discovered inhabit- 
We presume many alleged sub- 
ing various portions of the United 
States. 
now be torn, rent, cut chopped and 
The unfortunate Cowbird will 
split into infinitismal fragments of 
sub-species with which proceeding we 
have absolutely no sympathy what- 
ever, as it is now carried on in Ameri- 
Witness the fate of 
the Song Sparrow, Redwing Blackbird, 
can ornithology. 
Horned Lark, etc., most of which have 
been sub-divided and refined and re- 
refined until even the great bird doc- 
tors often are unable to tell which is 
which, nor from whence the specimen 
came; and frequently wind up as an 
excuse for their lack of knowledge of 
the alleged knowledge necessary to 
differentiate the various sub-species 
with this statement —‘intermediate 
between” so and so. 
a 
See to it that your name is on our 
subscription list for 1910. 
Collections. 
We have just recently examined and 
estimated the value of the collection 
of eggs of Mr. Thomas H, Jackson of 
Westchester, Pennsylvania, and learn 
it to be among the most complete in 
the country, containing as it does, 737 
species and sub-species, mostly in sin- 
gle sets; though in many of the rarer 
varieties, and in some of the exceed- 
ingly rare species, goodly series are 
represented. It is remarkable for a 
number of unusually rare specimens 
in proportion to the size of the collec- 
tion. 
Our old friend Professor W. Otto 
Emerson of Hayards, California, kind- 
ly forwarded us a list of his collection 
of nests and eggs. It was a pleasure 
to peruse the same and to learn that 
it represented 469 species and _ sub- 
species of North American birds, most- 
ly in single sets, through a consider- 
able proportion are represented by 
series. Professor Emerson’s’ well 
known accuracy and care is reflected 
in this accumulation, and he is‘ to be 
congratulated upon the splendid rep- 
resentation that his collection con- 
tains. 
Fred Truesdale of Shandon, Califor- 
nia forwarded us the datas accompany- 
ing the eggs in his collection for our 
inspection. Though a comparatively 
beginner in oology, ,Mr. Truesdale has 
accumulated 158 varieties, some of 
them exceedingly rare specimens, and 
in the course of years to come, we 
have no doubt it will become one of 
the leading collections on the coast. 
ee 
Qur Make Up. 
With this issue we make a slight 
change in the make-up of THE OOLO 
GIST. Hereafter the advertising mat 
ter will be paged with Roman letters, 
and the reading matter numerically. 
