92 THE 
J. C. Edwards, one of the foremost 
bird authorities of the United States, 
a man who has devoted his life to the 
study of birds, has been placed in 
charge of the institution by Mr. Grider. 
The institution is to be opened 
Saturday night and a cordial invita- 
tion has been extended the public by 
Mr. Grider. a 
—_ oa _<_<__——_ 
Returns From Alaska. 
Our friend, Professor Stevens of the 
Northwestern Normal School at Alva, 
Oklahoma, has but recently returned 
from an extended Alaskan trip and 
this is what is told of it in one of the 
papers published in the capitol of his 
state: 
Guthrie, Ok.—Returning home from 
seven months spent in Alaska with 
one of the finest zoological specimens 
ever brought out from the Arctic re- 
gion, Professor George W. Stevens, 
head of the department of biology at 
the Northwestern Oklahoma normal 
school at Alva, is in Guthrie to dis- 
cuss with the board of nermal school 
regents the disposition of the material 
which he has secured. 
Professor Stevens’s collection 
cludes groups of eight big Arctic ani- 
mals, moose, caribou, seals, sea lions, 
black bear, Kadiack brown bear, deer 
and white mountain sheep. He also 
secured a fine collection of smaller 
animals, such as beaver, mink and ot- 
ter, about 120 varieties of birds and 
1,500 valuable birds’ eggs, which are 
worth on an average $1 apiece. 
Most of his hunting was done on the 
Kenai peninsula, with the town of 
Seward as the base of supplies, al- 
though some of his finest specimens 
of deer were killed in Southern Alas- 
ka. He considers himself very fortu- 
nate in securing the white mountain 
sheep, which are quite rare and diffi- 
cult to get. The mountain climbing 
involved their hunting a hazardous ex- 
perience, although the most exciting 
in- 
OOLOGIST 
game of all to hunt, according to Pro- 
fessor Stevens, are the Kadiack bears, 
which are of about the same variety 
as the grizzly, only twice as large. 
One of the animals which he killed 
weighed 1,400 pounds and some of 
them run as high as 1,600 pounds. He 
gives a very graphic description of the 
sensations experienced when trailing 
a wounded bear through almost impen- 
etrable underbrush, with the know- 
ledge that at any moment the bear 
is likely to turn and fight, hunter and 
hunted then having their position re- 
versed. 
With everything packed into the 
very smallest available space, Profes- 
sor Stevens brought back with him 
half a carload of material, all of which 
came through in very good _ shape. 
The bulk of it probably will go to the 
museum of the Alva school, which, 
through his efforts, already has a fine 
collection of Oklahoma fauna. The 
board of regents is inclined to give 
some of the specimens thus obtained 
to the other normal schools, but will 
probably require them to mount the 
specimens and prepare them for exhi- 
bition themselves. 
Professor Stevens is a graduate of 
Kansas university, and received his 
training in zoology and taxidermy un- 
der Professor L. L. Dyche, the famous 
Kansas scientist and hunter of big 
game. 
BIRD NOTES. 
We wish everyone of our subscrib- 
ers who writes to the Editor no mat- 
ter upon what business or subject, 
would include in his letter some item 
of news which the writer believes 
would be of interest to our readers, 
or any conisderable portion thereof. 
This we would appreciate, as it would 
assist us in furnishing just what our 
readers want, viz: fresh, crisp field 
notes. 
