44 



THE NIDIOLOGIST 



The NiDiOLOGiST. 



AN ILLUS'J-RATED MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DtVOTHD TO THE STUDY OK 



ORNITHOLOGY, 



With Special Reference to the 

 NiDIFICATION OK NORTH AMERICAN BlRDS. 



H. R. TAYLOR, Editor and PubHsher. 



Issued at ALAMEbA, California. 



Subscription (in advance) One Dollar. 



Single Copies, 15 Cents. 



NEW VORH OFFICC, ROSS TAYLOR, ISO FIFTH AVENUE. 

 FOREIGN AGENT, H.T. BOOTH, SSA UPCERNE ROAO, CHELSEA, LONDON 



Original contributions, with or without illustrations, are earnestly 

 desired. 



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 (.Terms, Cash with Order.) 



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



The Nidioi^ogist takes great pleasure in pre- 

 .senting to its subscribers with this issue a colored 

 plate, the first of a series dealing with birds or 

 eggs, to appear as often as circumstances may per- 

 mit. We trust our friends will show their appre- 

 ciation of this unusual enterprise on our part by 

 sending in a few new subscribers. Everyone 

 counts. 



Mr. F. Stevens, the well-known Ornithologist 

 of California, is about to issue a popular work on 

 "Californian birds and mammals." It will give a 

 short description of each bird or mammal and will 

 be illustrated by sketches and half-tones. Mr. 

 Steven has just returned from a trip North, having 

 taken with him, Harry Fenn, Jr., the artist. 



Poetry isn't the strong forte of The Nidioi^o- 

 GisT. Nevertheless, when the same is considered 

 good enough to be taken from this magazine and 

 printed elsewhere, we like to be given due credit. 

 To Mr. David L. Savage, editor of the Iowa Oriii- 

 ///(^Vr'^'/.f/, a neat journal which has just appeared, 

 we would especially direct the foregoing remarks. 

 He has, ])erhaps unthinkingly, omitted the quota- 

 tion marks (in an article of his own) from a verse 

 taken from Niu., Vol. I, No. i. 



Cai'Tain Bendirk's Volume II of his valuable 

 "Life Histories" will include the species repre- 

 sented between 382 and 513 of the check list. It 

 is now almost completed, but will not l)e issued 

 for a year. 



Otto Emerson reports a set of 1-4 California 

 Schreech Owl and 3 eggs of tlie Flicker in the 

 .same hole, the little Owl having "jumped the 

 claim." 



The first number of the Iowa Oriiit/iolo^is/, 

 published by David L. Savage, is out, and it is a 

 credit to the bird men of Iowa, replete with infor- 

 mation about the birds of their state and well 

 printed. We understand it is to be issued quar- 

 terly. 



OOLOGISTS should always send out original data 

 with eggs. Data which is copied may be all O.K., 

 but it has a bad look. 



I MOST sincerely congratulate you upon the 

 great .success and high tone character of your 

 journal, and I think all Ornithologists appreciate 

 ii.— lV. E. Rotzell, M. D., Nar berth, Pa. 



" William Henry " Recants. 



IT is pleasing to note that your subscribers 

 are interesting themselves in recording 

 the heights of the taller trees of the 

 Sucker State. To be sure, the seutimeut, 

 as published, points directly against me; 

 but then, in this interesting discussion, not 

 yet ended, it is a pleasure to u.se the im- 

 mortal words of John Wolcot: 



" What rage for fame attends both great and small! (trees) 

 Better be d d than mentioned not at all." 



And I may add, further, that "confession 

 is good for the soul," and, in addition, that 

 I willingly recant my assertions as to the 

 pygmy trees of the Sucker State. 



But ! ! ! If you please, Mr. Editor, the 

 cause of the note in your August number, 

 headed "We Take Exceptions." was not 

 aimed at the size of the trees in the Sucker 

 State, nor did it intend to belittle the forests ^ 

 of the Union. Rather, we may call the note 

 a just criticism on the records of a collector 

 in Illinois. 



I acknowledge my error about trees and 

 their height, and now I will ask all collect- 

 ors of the Union to look carefully for the 

 nest of a Great Horned Owl 150 feet from 

 the ground. And further, Mr. Editor, I 

 shall ask that a sworn statement, made be- 

 fore a notary, be sent in with account of 

 such a find. I do not believe that any affi- 

 davit will ever be received b}' you to the 

 effect that eggs of the Great Horned Owl 

 were taken at 120 feet up in a sycamore. 



Not only this, but I sincerely doubt if 

 100 feet up will be sworn to in your columns, 

 for I want to assert, which all good collect- 

 ors know, that this Owl does not build in 

 tops of trees, but generally in a large crotch 

 near the trunk. Is it not so? 



"He laughs loudest who laughs last." 

 and if any sworn statements come in as to 

 eggs at 150 feet, then you credulous ones 

 can laugh and jeer at 



William Henry. 



