THE NIDIOLOGIST 



143 



trade in eggs and skins for the lot of Sea Ducks & 

 Terns & Gulls & Aucks, I send or else, / shall not 

 care to trade any more, but I will Risk one lot to start 

 any vvay to find out what you have. 



' " Very Truly vours " Dr. Smith 



"7 Bell Rock St." 



The Smith-Jones' sets of four Golden Eagle, and 

 also his Labrador Duck skins are of course famous in 

 museums! 



A recent letter from a collector in Minnesota relates 

 his costly experience with both " Smith " and " Jones." 

 •Some seven or eight years ago he sent Jones, of Mai- 

 den, a large lot of stuffed birds, some good, others 

 poor ; but he "could use poor ones for millinery pur- 

 poses." They were worth at alow estimate one hun- 

 dred dollars, and for these Jones agreed to send rare 

 ■eggs from Alaska and the far North. " He finally 

 sent," says our collector friend, "a box listed about 

 twenty dollars, which I have since learned were 

 frauds, and promising another lot as soon as they 

 arrived, which never happened. 



" Two years ago (about) I received a postal card 

 ■signed ' Dr. J. C. Smith,' stating that he was desirous 

 ■of securing a correspondent in the West with a view 

 to exchanging specimens. To my sorrow I replied, 

 and a correspondence followed in which he repre- 

 sented himself to be worth more than one million dol- 

 lars, and stated he was a great sportsman, etc., and 

 had just begun forming a collection, and had unrivaled 

 facilities for obtaining rare Northern skins and eggs 

 •of Ducks and sea birds, and he wanted everything — a 

 set of every species of bird, and skins without limit, 

 and offering the above regardless of value, and would 

 guarantee full satisfaction or forfeit one hundred dol- 

 lars in cash. After this I sent him a lot of birds 

 amounting to sixty-five dollars and fifty-five cents, 

 calling the skins half value. He sent me a box con- 

 taining one good skin of Slaty-backed Gull, so called 

 {but I am in doubt as to its identity), and one Golden- 

 eye and one Scotie, all fair specimens, and with them 

 a lot of trash, Warblers, etc., amounting to eighteen 

 dollars and five cents, allowing full price for all and 

 calling Slaty-backe.d Gull eight dollars. We had an- 

 other spirited correspondence in which he acknowl- 

 edged the debt, but first wanted me to send alcMig 

 another large lot, which I declined to do. I ought to 

 have advertised him as a swindler, but as I had no 

 other proof, concluded to let the matter drop and 

 stand the losses. 



" I fully expected this would end the affair, but was 

 surprised with another letter last fall, in which he 

 said he had just returned from Central America with 

 a fine lot of bright-plumaged birds and rare eggs, in- 

 cluding a number of Hummers, etc., and wanted to 

 exchange them for American skins and eggs. He 

 could use any species in unlimited quantities, no 

 matter whether first-class or not, and desired to know 

 how much he owed me on last deal, which he would 

 include in first shipment, and a lot more blarney. I 

 replied, referring him to a local taxidermist, and re- 

 quested him to send me anything he had to spare for 

 balance due me. To this he replied with an abusive 

 letter and referred to a transaction with the aforemen- 

 tioned J. F. Jones, stating he had lately met him and 

 he had pronounced me a fraud, etc. I replied by 

 simply asking him one question, whether he was not 

 identical with the said Jones, to which he sent a card 

 denying the affinity, and there our correspondence 

 rests." 



Walter Raine denies the statements in Professor 

 Macoun's letter and says he has "sets" of Western 

 Grebe marked by Professor Macoun.. 



The Pterylography of Certain American Goatsuckers 

 and Owls. By Hubert Lyman Clark. Proceedings 

 United States National Museum, vol. xvii, pp. 551- 

 572. Illustrated. Washington. 1894. (Govern- 

 ment.) 



Pterylography is the science that treats of the de- 

 scriptions and comparisons of the feather areas or 

 tracts on the bodies of birds and the naked spaces that 

 divide them. As these vary greatly in the different 

 groups, a proper consideration of them becomes of 

 considerable importance in the matter of the classifi- 

 cation of birds, and is a subject worthy of the best at- 

 tention on the part of the scientific Ornithologist. Up 

 to the present time the pterylography of the birds of 

 this country has been but very lightly touched upon, 

 and beyond the essays by Mr. F. A. Lucas, and the 

 pterylographical papers of Dr. Shufeldt on the Wood- 

 peckers, Fasseres, Owls, Swifts, Hummingbirds, and 

 some few others, very little has been accomplished 

 in this field. This being so, it is with special gratifi- 

 cation that we can welcome as a contribution to this 

 department of Ornithological science the first paper 

 from the pen of Mr. Clark, here to be noticed. Its 

 author comes into the arena with a strong hand, and 

 in this brief brochure upon the pterylography of the 

 Capriimdgi and Striges has not only proved himself to 

 be a true scientist, but a worthy, painstaking, and 

 able investigator of the subject he: has so fitly chosen 

 to cultivate. 



Following a terse and interesting .introduction to 

 his memoir, Mr. Clark proceeds to give us careful ac- 

 counts of the pterylosis of the genera Phalccnopiilits, 

 Antrostotnus, Nictidroinus, and Chordeiles. These ac- 

 counts are made fully comparative, and are illustrated 

 by excellent figures of the dorsal and ventral feather 

 tracts or P. nuttali, A. vociferus, N'. a. merrilli, and 

 C. virginianus. In a similar manner numerous species 

 of the American Owls are taken up and illustrateil 

 and thoroughly compared with the Goatsuckers. After 

 completing this Mr. Clark says, "The conclusion, 

 then, to which this study of their pterylography has 

 brought me is that the Caprimulgi are related to 

 Striges, and not very distantly either — probably a 

 branch from the early part of the Strigine stem." In 

 this opinion his present reviewer agrees with him, 

 and his contributions to the anatomy of these two 

 groups of birds published many years ago will vouch 

 for it. 



It is very much to be hoped that Mr. Clark will not 

 relinquish his labors, now so auspiciously set on foot, 

 until he has published thorough comparative and fully 

 illustrated accounts of the pterylography of all the 

 avian groups known to this country. The fact is 

 known to us that he has another memoir, far advanced, 

 upon the United States game birds, which all Ornithol- 

 ogists, who have the true progress of their science at 

 heart, await with interest. 



R. W. Shufeldt. 



In the Popular Science Mews for May, Dr. R. W. 

 Shufeldt continues the interesting series of papers he 

 has been presenting us, with one on " Gulls and Their 

 Allies." The article is embellished by a large pen 

 drawing, by the author, of Ross' Gull {Pkodostethia 

 rosea), an adult male of winter plumage and a young 

 female of the first autumn. T. 



