The Audubon Note Book. 



117 



he promised to do so, and at six o'clock lie carefully 

 wrapped the young bird in a cloth, and walked two 

 miles to the spot whence he had taken it. 



To his surprise and delight the entire robin family 

 were assembled, as if to meet him. He placed the 

 young bird upon the ground, and the joy manifested 

 by the parents at the unexpected return of their lost 

 one was something he could not describe, and well 

 repaid him for his morning journey.. They actually 

 screamed with delight as they fluttered around and 

 caressed the little creature, and Mr. W. was almost 

 as happy as the birds, witnessing their enjoyment 

 of the reunion. 



Mr. and Mrs. W. felt that they could never for- 

 give themselves for the grief they had so thought- 

 lessly caused the robin family to suffer, and I am 

 happy to say, that when the pledge of the Audubon 

 Society was placed before them, they unhesitatingly 

 signed their names, and are to-day proud to be num- 

 bered among its members. Mrs. J. Duer. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. 



IN THE EVERGLADES. 



I TAKE the Press, a sprightly little paper published 

 in the most southern incorporated town upon the 

 mainland of Florida — -for of course the large and 

 growing city of Key West is much further toward the 

 tropics — Fort Myers, on the Caloosa River, to wit, 

 and only sixty miles west of the Everglades. The 

 Press is a little paper, but large enough-for several 

 advertisements for unlimited numbers of birds and 

 bird skins. Also, for items such as this: "Jim 

 Bledsoe and Bill Rollins start next week for Lake 

 Okeechobee on the hunt for bird skins. They say 

 they know some mighty fine 'rookeries,'" by the 

 last word meaning the roosting places, i. c, homes 

 of the poor unsuspecting herons, etc., that once 

 brightened up an otherwise too monotonous land- 

 scape. These advertisements call especially for egrets. 

 If Florida permits the slaughter to continue she will 

 make a terrible mistake, beyond recall. Her egrets 

 will be gone but her regrets will never die. 



What a relentless pursuit. "Fashion" in New 

 York slays her millions in the remotest corners of the 

 globe. Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades are 

 to-day full of blood, torn feathers and screams of 

 anguish, that staring little corpses may cry for ven- 

 geance from the bonnets of what we satirically term 

 the "gentler" sex. O fashion, O woman, how many 

 crimes are done in your names ! May the Audu- 

 bon accomplish its glorious mission in (ist) teaching 

 us to admire and appreciate the infinite grace and 

 variety of animated creation, and (2d) that in this 

 matter "Want of thought is want of heart." 



T. May Thorp. 



NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM RECEPTION. 



The Board of Management of the Natural His- 

 tory Museum of New York gave its annual reception 

 on Tuesday, May 10, exhibiting to the public for the 

 first time the beautiful collection of eighteen species 

 of American birds, collected and prepared by Mr. 

 Jenness Richardson, late of the Washington (D. C.) 

 Museum, each species amid surroundings modeled 

 from nature by Mrs. E. S. Mogridge, formerly of 

 the South Kensington Museum, England. 



The birds were mute, but each group with its 

 surroundings exquisitely modeled from nature, the 

 nest just exactly where a bird's nester would look for 

 it, each nest full of eggs, and a well preserved male 

 and female of each of the eighteen species repre- 

 sented, perched in the immediate vicinity, looked so 

 lifelike that one was prepared to see the birds start 

 from their perch at any minute, or to hear them break 

 forth in song. 



First in order came the robins, then wood thrushes, 

 brown thrashers, yellow warblers, redstarts, Louisi- 

 ana water thrushes, swamp warblers, oven birds, red- 

 eyed vireos, white-eyed vireos, field sparrows, song 

 sparrows, swamp sparrows, seaside finch, sharp- 

 tailed finch, cardinal birds, rose-breasted grosbeaks, 

 long-legged clapper-rail. 



The charm of the collection and its value for edu- 

 cational purposes consist in the perfect reproduction 

 of the surroundings, amid which the several species 

 build their nests. The nest of the Louisiana water 

 thrush, concealed beneath an overhanging bank, the 

 oven bird with its quaint nest in woodland grove, the 

 nest of the sharp-tailed sparrows amid the coarse 

 grass and reeds of the salt marsh, were all repro- 

 duced with conscientious fidelity to nature. 



With this collection accessible to the public, there 

 is no need for the embryo ornithologist to trudge 

 afield gun in hand, shooting every bird he sees for 

 ' 'scientific purposes. " The birds can be as well studied 

 in our public museums as in private cabinets. The 

 amount of collecting for the bona fide scientific pur- 

 pose of keeping our museums supplied is very trifl- 

 ing, and a student having learnt all that can be learnt 

 from a study of dead specimens, should take the field, 

 not with the murderous shotgun, but with the field 

 glass, and surveying the birds from a distance, study 

 their habits while they disport themselves in unre- 

 strained freedom. 



The opening of the museum was a great success, 

 attracting some five thousand persons. In the even- 

 ing there was some discussion of the proposal of 

 opening the museum on Sunday, and it was gathered 

 that the Board did not favor the proposal, but would 

 submit to it if the Board of Apportionment would 

 meet the necessary costs. 



