The Audubon Note Book. 



^Z1 



of the work in the preparation of which he retained 

 to the last a lively interest, which neither harassing 

 cares nor physical suffering could damp. The whole 

 plan and treatment of the work bears the impress of 

 his own character, simple, exact, orderly, scientific, 

 but these characteristics could not have been im- 

 pressed upon it, excepting by one who shared them 

 in common with him. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippin- 

 cott Co. Price $7.50. 



THE EDITOR'S TALK. 



The signature of General Spinner, whose pleas- 

 ant lecture to boys is published on another page, 

 will recall to some of our readers the pleasure it has 

 afforded them in time past to become possessed of 

 documents bearing his signature in the days when 

 he was at the head of the Treasury. This is the 

 General Spinner who, during his long service in that 

 Department, earned for himself the appellation of 

 ■"Watch Dog of the Treasury," an expression which 

 in few words conveys a higher tribute to the stern, 

 unflinching fidelity with which he guarded the 

 nation's trust, than could be spread over a volume 

 of studied encomium. The General's official services 

 belong to history. He is now a young man of 86, 

 young because he is still overflowing with mirth and 

 sympathy — sympathy with young people and with 

 birds also, and with all nature, animate and inani- 

 mate, and of course he is a warm supporter of the 

 Audubon Society. He is no friend of the English 

 sparrow, because he accepts the popular -view that 

 these impudent little foreigners, without beauty or 

 song, are destroying or driving away the native 

 birds, whose presence gladdens both eye and ear. 

 Whether the General is right or wrong is not of 

 much consequence. The sparrows are rapidly reach- 

 ing the limits of their food supply, and this reached, 

 two-thirds of their numbers must die every year; a 

 necessity which renders their culinary treatment an 

 importment branch of economic ornithology. The 

 General's recommendations, if carried into effect, so 

 far from exterminating the sparrow, will simply 

 afford a test of his merits, which will be sure to re- 

 sult in his protection during the breeding season. 



A New South Wales paper is credited with a 

 story now going the round of the American press to 

 the effect that an American woman, Mrs. Mackay, 

 having determined to possess a mantle made of the 

 breasts of the bird of Paradise, has arranged to 

 send a couple of "sportsmen" to New Guinea to ob- 

 tain the needed supply, estimated at five hundred 

 skins. Of course all ladies who wear feather milli- 

 nery must directly or indirectly employ skin hunters 

 to shoot the birds, and one who buys a single skin 



for her hat breathes as open a defiance of the better 

 sentiment of the age as she who wears five hundred; 

 the question of wholesale or retail indulgence is de- 

 pendent on length of purse. Nevertheless we hope 

 that for the credit of American women the story is 

 not true. A woman' who could seek to draw atten- 

 tion to herself by such an exhibition on her person 

 of the evidences of wealth, must be necessarily un- 

 conscious of the impression she would create among 

 people of good taste abroad; but it is hard for the 

 average American woman to read such statements 

 without feeling mortified at the reflection that 

 foreigners accept such stories in good faith, and 

 base their estimate of American women on incidents 

 which, if true, are equally as characteristic of the 

 nouveau richesse in monarchical as in republican 

 societies. 



Correspondents occasionally omit to give their 

 address, or they send in packets of signed pledges 

 without any communication, and very likely charge 

 the Society with neglect for failing to reply, or to 

 send certificates. A Brooklyn (N. Y.) correspondent 

 sent in some 25 pledges early in October, but as 

 they were unaccompanied by any communication 

 and had no street addresses on them, we do not know 

 where to sent certificates. 



Proposed improvements in Trinity Cemetery will 

 necessitate the removal of Audubon's remains from 

 their present resting place. There is to be a new 

 avenue laid out to be called Audubon avenue, at the 

 head of which it is proposed to erect a monument 

 worthy of the great naturalist; but it is understood 

 that the New York Academy of Sciences favor the 

 transfer of the remains to Trinity Church. 



Mr. H. S. Marlor, of Brooklyn, Conn., has 

 bought sixty acres of woodland, which he appropri- 

 ates as a harbor of refuge for birds. 



What I Found in the Bird's Nest. — One 

 morning as I and my dog were strolling in the woods 

 to see the birds, I happened to spy a bird's nest in a 

 pine tree. I hastily climbed up to the nest to take a 

 look at it, and just as I was going to put my hand 

 in it I heard a squeaking noise, and out jumped two 

 woodmice and four or five young ones. My dog 

 Joe then jumped upon the little ones and killed three 

 of them. One of the old ones ran up a birch tree, 

 and as I went to grab her she bit my finger, and I 

 threw her upon the ground; she then ran into a hole 

 in a stump. I then went home very much pleased 

 with my adventure. I remain your loving friend, 

 Harry W. Young (South Hingham, INIass.). 



