84 THE 
far as our knowledge, experience and 
reading goes, a very unusual nesting 
site for this species; indeed the first 
instanee of the kind coming within 
our personal knowledge. The nest con- 
tained four eggs and the mother bird 
apparently as much at home as she 
nestled among the grass, as a Red- 
wing Blackbird or Meadow lark. 
—_¢<>_o—___—_—___ 
FROM ISLE OF PINES. 
A Field Trip to ‘Sas Tres Hermanas” 
Mountains, April 4, 1910. 
It was a cloudy Sunday morning 
when we started from McKinley for 
Nueva Gerona from where we were 
to go to the mountains. In our party 
there were ten, three of us on horse 
back and the rest in a wagon. After 
a most enjoyable ride of about twelve 
miles we arrived at the base of the 
mountains where we ate lunch. After 
eating we started to climb and in due 
time arrived at the top. The view was 
fine, but because of the mist we could 
not see quite so far out at sea as we 
could have on a clearer day, and our 
photographs were not so good. Very 
few birds were seen on the mountains, 
namely: Black-whiskered Vireo, 
which were in full song; Turkey Buz- 
zards, and a pair of Broad-winged 
Hawks. The following birds were seen 
on the trip to and from Nueva Gerona: 
Lizard Cuckoo, Cuban Kingbird, 
Gray Kingbird, Cuban Oriole, Cuban 
Pewee, Red-legged Thrush, Cuban 
Sparrow Hawk, Palm Warbler, Pigeon 
“(Columba inornata), Meadow-lark, 
West Indian Mourning Dove, Cuban 
Ground Dove, Cuban Grackle, Florida 
Yellow-throat, Cuban Red-bellied 
Woodpecker, Yellow-faced . Grassquit 
and the best of all the Melodious 
Grassquit, which is an extremely rare 
bird. We arrived home about 7:30 p. 
m., tired, but well pleased with our 
trip and hope to go again soon. 
A. C. RHAD. 
OOLOGIST 
Books Received. 
Part 1, pp. 1-8, Volume 7, University 
of California Publications in Zoology, 
May 26, 1910. : 
This publication described two al 
leged new birds, as follows: 
Sahuara Screech Owl (otis asio gil- 
mani)—“Most like Otis asio ciner- 
aceus—Ridgeway, from which is dif- 
fers chiefly in slightly smaller size, 
paler coloration and greater restric- 
tion of the dark markings.” ; 
Arizona Spotted Owl (Strix occi- 
dentalis huachuace)—‘Similar to Strix 
occidentalis occidentalis — Xanthus, 
but slightly smaller and conspicuously 
paler, white markings more extensive 
and dark areas less deep toned.” 
Both of these birds are described 
by Harry S. Swarth, the first being 
based upon a comparison of a series of 
eight birds and the latter based ex- 
clusively upon the type specimen. 
We are now arriving at the natural 
and, necessarily to be expected end 
of the transition stage through which 
American Ornithology has of late been 
aimlessly traveling. Praise the Lord! 
We may now describe a new sub-spe- 
cies based upon a single bird. This 
is as it should be. Every ornitholo- 
gist from now on may without fear, 
label every bird that he finds as an in- 
dependent new sub-species and there- 
by indefinitely enlarge private collec- 
tion. Throw away all your labels and 
in lieu of a dozen or fifteen sub-spe- 
cies of Horned Larks and a couple of 
dozen different Song Sparrows take 
each specimen in your collection and 
re-label each bird, a separate sub- 
species. You may thereby at some- 
time in the very distant, misty future, 
enroll your name in letters bold and 
bright upon the future pages of Ameri- 
can Ornithology as the originator or 
discoverer of a _ sub-species that is 
SSrhoollene Way but slightly 
smaller” than some other bird that 
somebody else secured the day before 
or the day after. You will certainly 
thereby, to say the least, encourage 
the destruction of the birds in the end- 
less hunt for something that is “sim- 
ilar to” but “slightly different from.” 
