The nidiologist. 



Sketches in jMatuFe. 



LIFE IN THE WILDS. 



Far from the World's dull care, 

 With Peace and Nature there, 



Stray I, a boy ! 

 Birds come and sing to me, 

 Spring, you do bring to me — 

 Fullness of joy. 

 Do not pity us, wandering in the wilds. 

 Nature's store- house is rich, and all is ours. 

 Toothsome fish sport in the streams, and 

 all the coverts of the rabbit we know, and 

 where the shy Partridges come forth to feed. 

 No society, do you say? Ah ! how little 

 do you know ! Up the Rattlesnake River 

 a family of beavers have built their home 

 and the slide on the bank where they enter 

 the stream, and across on the other side 

 where a great snag projects from the water, 

 a solemn old bittern is wont to sit watching 

 for fish, and occasionally staring at us 

 curiously as though he would ask us to be 

 considerate, and not to disturb his medita- 

 tions. And then, early every morning, a 

 dainty Ground Wren (a ball of feather with 

 eyes and a long tail), comes from her nest 

 in a thicket and drinks from a spring near 

 our tent. And there are some pretty warb- 

 lers that often come to visit us ; and two 

 great lyOgcocks that have their home chisel- 

 ed out high up in a tree in a deep wood 

 not far away sometimes flap through the 

 air with their loud alarm cry to a tall tree, 

 where they beat their resounding tattoo of 

 defiance. So that of many queer neigh- 

 bors, gossipy, quiet, and diversified in 

 character, we have no lack. 



And what does it matter if we sometimes 

 go hungry, and the luxuries of civilization 

 are not in camp ? Blessings manifold are 

 ours. The forest leaves at evening whisper 

 " Peace!" The breezes bring a soothing 

 balm, and soon the music of the frogs 

 and the occasional noises of the night 

 become more indistinct and dreamy. Oitr 

 eyelids droop lower and lower ; the river 

 L/ethe o'erflows all sounds ; we are asleep 

 — in the big open-air palace of the Most 

 High ! Wii^DwooD. 



GENERAL NOTES OF INTEREST. 



Save the nests. Nothing in your col- 

 lection will prove of greater or more lasting 

 interest. 



T. S. Brandegee and wife and Dr, Eisen, 

 of the San Francisco Academy of Sciences, 

 will leave shortly by steamer for Lower 

 California. 



Chas. A. Keeler, the ornithologist, has 

 returned to Berkeley from the East. He 

 took a four months' trip around the Horn 

 for the benefit of his health. 



Walter Raine, the well-known oologist 

 of Toronto, Ontario, lately returned home 

 from a two months' collecting trip in North- 

 weit Canada and the R^cky mountains. It 

 is safe to say he was successful. 



W. A. Burres writes from Esco.idido, 

 Cal.: "About 1:30 a. m., as two of us were 

 coming from town [had been to a dance], 

 we heard the note- of a meadow lark, which 

 I think is rather early in the morning for' 

 them to sing. " 



Dr. W. H. Neale, writing to the Eondon 

 Times of the experiences of himself and 

 twenty-tour companions in Franz Josef 

 Land, says that while ice-bound for ten 

 months the party consumed 36 polar bears, 

 29 walrus, and 2000 loons. 



Walter K. Bryant, the naturalist, who in 

 collaboration with A. M. Ingersoll wrote 

 at one time an interesting paper on data 

 blanks and another on packing and trans- 

 porting eggs, has promised an article for 

 the Nidiologist on "Hints to Egg Col- 

 lectors." Mr. Bryant's suggestions are 

 sure to be of value. 



A friend informs us that near his father's 

 mine, in the mountains of Tuolumne coun- 

 ty, Cal., there is a nesting-place of the 

 Band-tailed Pigeon. One particular tree is 

 chosen, which one unacquainted with the 

 neighborhood might never discover, and 

 on the horizontal branches the nests are 

 built, quite a number on each branch. The 

 men at the mine use the eggs to eat. Think 

 of making omelettes of such rare eggs. 



