78 



THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



The Nidiologist. 



AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAGAZINE 

 DEVOTED TO 



THE STVnV OK 



ORJMITHOLiOGY, 



AN1> 



With Special Reference to the 

 N'difieation of fiofth Amettiean Birds. 



KDITED I!Y 



HENRY REED TAYLOR. 



Issued at Alameda, California. 

 Subscription (in advance) .... One Dollar. 

 Single Copies, except "samples" . . . .75 Cents. 



Original contributions, with or without illustrations, are 

 earnestly desired. 



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 ( Terms Cash -with Order. ) 



I page (out.side. 17 inches) Each In.'ertion, $10 00 



I pape linsidei " " 8 00 



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Special inducements on contracts for over two months 



Entered at the Alameda Post-office as second class matter. 



Patrons of the Nidiologist will please note 

 changes in our advertising rates and rates for "ex- 

 changes," due to our increasing circulation and 

 the demands upon our space. 



VEf^Y QUEEF^. 



The February issue of the Nidiologist will 

 contain a sketch of the varied career of that well- 

 known ornithologist, Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, with an 

 excelleut "half-tone" portrait of him. 



We shall publish shortly, probably in our next 

 number, a very interesting contribution by Otto 

 Emerson, on collecting among the water birds of 

 Dakota. Three "stunning" half-tone illustrations 

 go with this article. 



Our January number is out a little late, owing 

 to delay in receiving the "half-tones" for Mr. 

 Raines' very interesting article. We also hoped 

 to get in this number an illustration of the ornith- 

 ological cxliibit at the Midwinter I'air, which is a 

 great success. A full account of it will appear, 

 however, "in our next." 



Among the many complimentary letters we have 

 re' eived is one from Frank Lattin, the genial editor 

 of the Oologisl, who writes: "The Nidiologist 

 cannot help but succeed and prove an unbounded 

 success." Dr. R. W. Shufeldt remarks: "I am 

 very much pleased with the entire appearance of 

 the December Niihologist, and thank you for the 

 handsome way in which you reproduced my article 

 with its figures. It is a delight to me to see a 

 journal so free from typographical errors of any 

 kind. I hear it well spoken of everywhere." 



It is not from the ranks of upright orni- 

 thologists or other honorable scientists that 

 we expect to ctill swindlers and meddlers, 

 and yet it sometimes happens that the at- 

 tempts of a certain pretentious class of 

 persons, who injure the cause of our selected 

 branches, demand the attention of someone 

 of more severit}' than a mere critic, and 

 more outspoken than a moderator. It 

 shall be our effort to expose a case in point, 

 where a person intent on securing fame and 

 emoluments to himself, not only over-step- 

 ped the narrow limits of his knowledge, 

 but likewise exposed himself to severe and 

 lasting censure by making numerous prom- 

 ises which he did not fulfill. 



The case in qtiestion, is one in which a 

 so-called entomologist, who could not suc- 

 ceed or distinguish himself in his chosen 

 profession, thought to elevate himself by 

 writing a pamphlet on birds. Without 

 capacity to prodtice a treatise on the insects 

 of his State, he still has the consummate 

 impudence to attempt an annotated cata- 

 logue of the birds of Michigan. 



As a matter of fact, this man, Professor 

 A. J. Cook, is utterly ignorant of the birds 

 of his State or any other, and could not, 

 alone, write out the correct names of any 

 dozen of our common birds if asked to 

 identify them. Still he aspires to the dis- 

 tinction of an author, and that, too, on a 

 subject with which he is as little acquainted 

 as he possibly could be. 



This did not bother the professor. He 

 knew that the name of professor would 

 carry him throttgh, and with this titled 

 anchor, which is shared in by so many- 

 fakirs of the present day, and a copious use 

 of the pen and ink, he waded in. Promises, 

 big talk on paper and his title composed 

 his stock in trade. The professor wrote 

 north, south, east and west; he touched 

 every section of the State and even dipped 

 into adjacent States, where the observers 

 would listen to his pleadings; he wrote to 

 New York City and Washington and secured 



