THE OOLOGIST . 271(3),\q\° 23 
NEWS ITEMS. 
Two Snowy Owls were shot January 
3, 1910, at Holley, New York. 
One almost perfect Albino Ruff 
Grouse was seen by Harry R. Warren 
early in January, 1910, at Holley, New 
York. 
We are in receipt of an invitation to 
attend an International Ornithological 
Congress to be held in the City of Ber- 
lin, Germany from May 30th to June 
4th, 1910. Stress of other business 
will prevent our attendance? 
The first Bluebird arrived at the 
home of THE OOLOGIST at Lacon, 
Illinois, March 5th, 1910. And the 
first Robin, March 8th. Both species 
being from one to two weeks late, pos- 
sibly owing to the extreme winter; 
though the weather has been unusual- 
ly mild for ten days before their arri- 
val for this time of year. 
During the spring of 1909, near Row- 
an Station, on the route of the Butler, 
Harmony and Newcastle car line, I 
found a nest of the American Robin 
(Planesticus migratorius) placed on 
one of the railroad ties on a trestle, 
the top of the nest being only about 
three inches from the bottom of the 
rail! One of those heavy electric cars 
thundered over that trestle every half- 
hour, but, strange to say, it didn’t 
seem to bother the old bird at all, for 
she never left the nest. The nest con- 
tained four well incubated eggs. 
Wm. G. Pitcairn. 
I have in my collection a set of 
three eggs of the Brown Thrasher 
- (Toxostoma rufum) which merits a 
writing up. To begin with, the eggs 
are usualy large for the species in this 
section, measuring as follows: 1.27x 
.93; 1.26x.94; 1.28x.93 inches. The 
ground color of the eggs is pale green, 
and they are very sparsely speckled 
instead of being heavily peppered as 
in the case with the normal egg of 
the species. The nest was on _ the 
ground under a log, and after the three 
eggs had been laid, the birds deserted 
the nest. When collected, all the eggs 
were out of the nest, one being at least 
two feet away. 
Wm. G,. Pitcairn. 
We have recently had the privilege 
of inspecting a catalogue of the collec- 
tion of North American Birds eggs 
owned by the late Charles K. Worthen 
of Warsaw, Illinois, at the time of his 
decease. 
As Mr. Worthen was a scientist well 
known to all ornithologists and oolo- 
gists not only in America, but in 
Europe, one whose standing for abso- 
lute integrity was beyond question, 
it may be of interest to our readers 
to know that at the time of his death, 
Mr. Worthen’s private collection of 
North American Birds consisted of 333 
species, comprising 650 sets and 1406 
eggs. 
It may be of interest to some of the 
readers of THE OOLOGIST to know 
of the measures taken by the Depart- 
ment of Commerce and Labor, for the 
protection of our native birds on the 
Reservations of the Lighthouse Es- 
tablishments. No one is allowed to 
destroy a bird or its nest, or nesting 
place, and must protect the same as 
far as possible. This was brought 
abcut through the doings of the Audu- 
mon Society. 
The undersigned spent some time on 
a Reservation on the North side of 
the Golden Gate Channel. Every even- 
ing as soon as the light was started, 
every gull in the neighborhood would 
begin flying around the lantern, along 
up the shore aways, up over the rocks 
of the coast, out over the bay, and 
back by way of the channel, around 
the lantern again. They would keep 
this up for perhaps an hour or more. 
Among the most delightful trips I ever 
had, were the ones in interest of 
Botany of Oology, taken in the wild 
rough region, along the Pacific, in 
California. 
Geo. W. H. Vos Burgh. 
