THP: NIDIOLOGIST 



ThK NiDlOLOGIST. 

 ,4.V ILLI'SWATED MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DKVOTKP Til THE STITDY OF 



ORNITHOLOGY, 



With Siieoiiil Keforence to the 



XlDIKRATION OK NoRTH AMERICAN BiRDS. 



II. K. TAYLOR, Editor and Publisher. 



WE EXPOSE FRAUDS. 



Subscripilon (ill Hilvance), $1.5(1 



Sl.\ Months SO cents 



Single Copii'S. 1.") cents 



Keniit bills, money order, draft, or check. 



FOREIGN AGENT, H. T. BOOTH, 38A UPCERNE ROAD, CHELSEA, LONDON. 



(.•riginul contribattons, with or without illustrations, are earnestly 

 desli-ed. 



ADVEUTISING RATi:S KCUNISHED. 



ALWAYS ADDRESS 

 150 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY. 



Wri 11 this issue the Nidiolocist begins its life in 

 the great city of New York. The reasons for the 

 change were sufficiently set forth in our last number, 

 and we hope more than ever to merit the good will of 

 the friends of this journal for the interchange of 

 opinion between Ornithologists and Oologists. 



For reasons obvious to our readers the first page 

 of this edition is numbered 87 instead of 88, page 87 

 of February to be discarded in binding. The paper 

 and the editor have now joined company, and they 

 will never again be separated this side the pearly 

 gates. The moral reflection is, "There are moments 

 when one likes to be alone," and there are thoughts 

 too deep for utterance. For preservation in the file 

 we ^.hall reprint Mr. A. M. Ingersoll's article on 

 Wilson's Plover in our April number. 



New Vdkk, March 5, 1S95. 

 Mr. Walter F. Wehh. 



Dear Sir: As you price in your new Manual the 

 <-'KK <'^ the California Vulture at ,$25, whereas there 

 are only four eggs in the world known to me, I hereby 

 offer you for three, or a less number, of such eggs, 

 !j;25oeach. 



In the same list yoil price the egg of the Guadalupe 

 Caracara, a bird now supposed to be extinct, at $3. 

 I hereby offer you for ten such eggs $20 each; and as 

 you also price the egg of the Farallone Rail, of which 

 only the type specimen is known, at *>3, I beg to offer 

 you for twenty such eggs, properly authenticated, 

 •Sioo each. On ail or any of these offers I stand ready 

 to hand you my certified check. 



.And I may add, that if successful in purchasing any 

 or all of these eggs, I intend forming a syndicate U) 

 place an order with you for a series of eggs of the 

 Dodo and Roc. Very truly vours, 



H. R. Tavi.or. 



Passi.ni; eastward, the Editor had the pleasure of a 

 Sunday dinner at Denver with Frederick M. Dille and 

 wife, and their bai>y girl, Florence Anthony — named 

 for A. W. Anthony, the Ornithologist. It goes with- 

 out saying that the little girl will grow up to study 

 birds. She "collects eggs in winter," Mr. Dille says, 

 so the egg cases are put in a safe place. Mr. Dille's 

 specialty in the egg line are Magpie's eggs. He 

 carries a light ladder, with a hinge in the middle. 



which he finds most useful in visting the Magpie 

 rookeries. The White-tailed Ptarmigan nests above 

 the snow line near Denver, and Mr. Dille tells of a 

 mining prospector who found a nest and ale the e^gs„ 

 blissfully ignorant of the fact that they are valued at. 

 $7 or $8 apiece ! 



The pleasure of nicely rounding a sentence some- 

 times leads us into unconscious misstatements.. 

 .Summing up his points in a recent article in the 

 Oologist on bird destruction, an Ornithologist says : 

 " Science has measured, weighed, and described the 

 birds, their nests and eggs. Upon these points there 

 is but little more to learn." 



This is a broad assertion. Captain C. E. Bendire,. 

 with all his experience and collated notes, finds him- 

 self hampered for lack of sufficient data as to some of 

 our common birds in writing his Life Histories, and 

 is free to admit that the field of observation is much 

 too large for the lifetime of any one man. De- 

 cidedly, there is a great deal more to learn about 

 "birds, their nests and eggs." 



One of the funniest cases of a prize fraud is Dr. (?)■ 

 James C. Smith, of 7 Bell Rock Street, West Everett, 

 Mass., sometimes hailing from Middlesex Museum, of 

 the same town. Dr. (?) Smith is evidently an enter- 

 prizing "kid" with an imagination and a bad training. 

 He refers, as to his reliability, to various banks and 

 scientific men (all fictitious), and offers almost unheard 

 of rarities in eggs and skins, including skins ol Labra- 

 dor Duck, if you will only send him eggs, "singles or 

 second class." He wants something better than or- 

 dinary sets of Eagles' eggs, having " two sets of four 

 now." This fellow will hereafter probably try some 

 other alias in hopes of "taking in" the unsophisticated 

 collector of tender vears. 



Do.n'i' neglect sending us an item because it is: 

 small. So is the wasp, but he makes himself felt.. 

 All may contribute short personals, ideas tor the 

 collector, and notes from the field. 



Recently Received. 



I take this opportunity to thank you for the beauti- 

 ful colored plate which came with the November 

 " Nil)," and all the "good things " with which you are 

 surprising me. — Benjaiiiin Hoag, Stephentoivn, JV. Y. 



\v your magazine for 1895 comes anywhere near up- 

 to 1894 it will be cheap at $2 or $3, and I do not see 

 how any Ornithologist or Oologist in the country can 

 do without it. — Philo IV. Smith, Jr., Mona House, St.^ 

 Louis, Mo. 



I have perused with great pleasure two numbers of 

 the NiinoLixJisr kindly sent me. It is certainly the 

 finest thing I have ever seen, and some of the well- 

 known names make me wish to renew their ac- 

 quaintance if only through your entertaining maga- 

 zine. You may count on me as a permanent sub- 

 scriber. — B. //. Swales, Detroit, Mich. 



A Small Set of Coot. — Mr. A. M. IngersoU took a 

 set of two eggs of the American Coot at Merced Lake,. 

 San Francisco, in which incubation was far advanced, 

 and the nest from all appearances had not been 

 molested. Still this number two can only be con- 

 sidered an abnormal set and lacking the usual num- 

 bers from unknown causes. 



