The nidioloGist. 



15 



A Full-sized Condor. 



Kissed In Faretoell. 



IN looking through a volume of statistics 

 a short inie since, I happened upon an 

 item that I think might prove interest- 

 ing to readers of the NidioIvOGIST. It was 

 something of a revelation to me and ever 

 since reading it I have felt that I had still 

 something to live for. 



The book in question was a portly vol- 

 ume bearing a somewhat truthful appear- 

 ance, rejoicing in the title of " Scientific 

 Miscellany," and containing all manner of 

 information, useful and otherwise. Among 

 a number of other items in the zoological 

 department, all more or less amusing, I 

 found the following: "The Condor of the 

 Peruvian Andes has an expanse of lorty 

 feet, quills eight inches in diameter and 

 twenty feet in length. " It strikes me that 

 this is a well grown chick; but still there 

 is a mistake, for if the primaries are twenty 

 feet in length, where is all that length of 

 wing where the secondaries ought to be — 

 to say nothing of a rather broad back, etc. 

 One hundred and forty feet must have been 

 the measurement intended. But think of 

 the cabinet room required for a seriei of 

 such skins ! 



A. W. Antohny. 



Cooper Ornithological Club. 



THE monthly meeting of the Cooper 

 Ornithological Club was held Septem- 

 ber I . The Wrens of California were 

 discussed. A report of the papers read will 

 appear later. A careful report on system- 

 atic work for the Club was presented by the 

 Committee. Mr. E. W. Currier of San 

 Francisco and Mr. Evan Davis of Orange, 

 Cal., were elected to membership. A plan 

 is to be considered at the October meeting 

 whereby the Government publications be- 

 longing to the Club can be loaned to mem- 

 bers. Sug8:estions will be in order. 



C. Bari,ow, Secretary. 



ENCIvOSED please find one dollar, sub- 

 scription to the NiDiOLOGiST, Vol. II. 

 When I enclosed my one dollar for 

 Vol. I, I kissed it and bade it good-bye, just 

 the same as I did when I last loaned my 

 umbrella. The latter has never been heard 

 from, while the former has returned with 

 compound interest, in the shape of 184 

 pages of Ornithological information. M3'' 

 best wishes for the success of Vol. II. 

 Yours respectfully, 



Philip Laurent. 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



A Wasp Diet. 



SHOT a young male Louisiana Tanager, 

 September 9, in good physical condi- 

 tion. All its gizzard contained were 

 the heads, wings, legs and thorax, but no 

 abdomens, of six or seven wasps that the 

 bird had swallowed piece b}^ piece. This 

 bird was migrating and was taken in a peai 

 orchard where many wasps and bees were 

 feeding on the decaying fruit. Probobl}- 

 some Entomologist may explain why the 

 bird rejected the abdomens, which contain 

 the sting. Is this not an unusual diet, and 

 does the Kingbird feed upon wasps as well 

 as upon bees? 



D. A. Cohen. 

 Alameda, Cal. 



Water Rats Destroying Eggs. 



MR. WALTER E. BRYANT very 

 properly reminds me that, in my 

 article on the California Clapper 

 Rail, I forgot to mention the common 

 rat or marsh rat as a destroyer of their 

 eggs. The home of the water rat, every- 

 where about San Francisco Bay in the 

 marshy tracts, is also that of the Rail, and 

 the rodents have learned to locate the Rails' 

 nests and destroy many eggs, contributing 

 with the itinerant sportsman to thinning 

 the number of the birds. 



