lOS 



THE OOLOGIST 



Hairy or Downy tapping, Song Spar- 

 rows. Fine day, cold, light north wind. 

 I first heard the Purple Martin April 

 23rd or 24th. 



George W. H. vos Burgh, 



Columbus, Wis. 



ter record of the Sparrow Hawk in 

 Minnesota, as far as I know. 



Alza D. Brown, 

 Pipestone, Minn. 



ANOTHER PRODIGAL SON RE- 

 TURNS 



A communication received early in 

 May reads as follows: "I used to 

 take The Oologist years ago, and my 

 first literay effort was published in it, 

 as is the case with so many different 

 beginners in ornithology. In this re- 

 spect your paper has a different 

 function from other bird journals and 

 hence deserves the support of us all." 

 And this accompanied by a subscrip- 

 tion remittance. — R. M. B. 



H. H. Bailey writes that he made a 

 trip to Merritt's Island, the home of 

 the Dusky Sea Side Sparrow, 460 

 miles, 80 of which was the roughest 

 he ever traveled and he was success- 

 ful in securing some specimens, and 

 he hands us a clipping from a local 

 newspaper in which this Sparrow is 

 referred to as "a rare Blackbird." 

 So much for newspaper ornithology, 

 for which of course our friend Bailey 

 is not responsible. 



R. M. Barnes. 



On December 27th a farmer boy 

 brought a Sparrow Hawk to me for 

 identification. The plumage was in 

 high color. The bird was large and 

 a fine specimen and alive. One shot 

 had entered the fleshy part of the 

 breast which did not seem to hurt it 

 much for he was real lively. I tried 

 to have the boy leave it with me but 

 he seemed to think it was something 

 rare and would get big money for it, 

 so he grabbed the bird, stuffed it into 

 a box and would not talk to me any 

 more. He walked off and I have never 

 seen him since. This is the first win- 



IN LOWER CALIFORNIA 



A letter from one of our collectors 

 contains the following chatty news re- 

 lating to that country, and its feath- 

 ered denizens. 



"It seems that the Revolution in 

 Mexico brought about a great change 

 in Mexico as to living conditions. I 

 know when 1 was here fifteen years 

 ago things were very reasonable. Now 

 living is high. For instance, a small 

 box of matches is 3 cents gold. You 

 have to pay $75 gold to go from here 

 to La Paz, 140 miles by auto. Shot 

 gun shells are 12 1/^ cents each, gold. 

 You pay 80 cents gold for a small 

 can of peaches. 



However, from all I hear this is the 

 worst place in Mexico. 



You are right in supposing that 

 this country was four-fifths treeless, 

 rocky hills. It's 99/100 that. This 

 little valley is about all the agricul- 

 tural land in hundreds of miles. 



The weather has been ideal up till 

 now (May 20, 1923), but it has started 

 out to get real hot. One has to get 

 up at daylight to hunt. As soon as 

 the sun is well up clouds of gnats ap- 

 pear which are a great pest. When 

 one stops to wrap a bird they make 

 for your eyes which seem a favorite 

 place for them. 



All the winter birds have gone ex- 

 cept a few White-crowned Sparrows, 

 so there are no birds to speak of in 

 the cultivated areas and one must 

 hunt on the desert among the gnats. 



We expect to leave here on the-next 

 boat for a cooler climate, to Lake 

 Chapala, near Guadalajara, which is 

 only about six hours from Mexico 

 City. Mrs. Lamb doesn't feel able to 

 make the hot arduous mule-back ride 

 to the mountains, but in the fall we 



