84 



THE OOLOGIST. 



1 woiild like to ask if he is positive tliat 

 tlie V)ird uained does not nest iu Iowa? 

 Cones in his "Key to N. A. B. '" gives this 

 l)ir<l from the southern states, up the Miss- 

 issippi Valley to the Missouri regions, W. 

 to Arkansas and the Indian Territory; re- 

 cently Kansas, Nebriiska, Iowa etc. 

 I can but indorse the advice given to yoimg 

 collectors, and contributors, yet I think he 

 is a little too severe in his judgment of 

 them. He should remember that we were 

 all young once, and that disc^retiou and 

 accuracy only come with hard study and 

 years of experience. I know there are art- 

 icles written and chculated that contain a 

 great deal of untruth, but I can not believe 

 that the writers mean to prevaricate. I 

 think that if the older and more experienced 

 ornithologists would take hold with us, and 

 give tis a few articles now and then that it 

 would help in a great measure to throw 

 light on some of the obscure points wherein 

 some few of us hiive erred. 

 Very truly yours. 



L. d. Dart, Litchfield, Minn. 



It seems to me that "Scolopux" liimself 

 made a misstatement in the Jan . Oologist, 

 when he said that an egg of the Bald 

 Eagle was one-fourth the cubical 

 dimensions of a Goose Egg. According to 

 Davie tie dimensions of an egg of the Bald 

 Eagle is 3 in. by 2 in.; now according to 

 "Scolopax's" statement would not his goose 

 eggs be rather large? 



W. E. Pratt Luke Forest. Ills 



A Record than cannot be Beaten. 



I noticed iu the January OoLKiisr thai 

 a Horned Lark had been recorded by the 

 e litor, Jan. 3. 



This record I can eclipse, as I w;is much 

 surprised and pleased 1o record a Horned 

 Lark on the morning of January 1st. I 

 have also seen, this month (Jan.), a Tree 

 Sparrow and a Northern Shrike. 



I think the Horned Lirk must be resident 



here, as I have observed it during every 



mon h of the year except December, and 



have found two nests, both in .April, 18*^8. 



Neil F. Possoif, Medina. N. Y. 



Albino Eggs of Bluebird. 



In luiiking over the Ooi.ooisT for the 

 past few years, I notice albino "eggs" ofe 

 diifereut s])ecies of birds occasit>nally si^oken 

 of, and thinking a mite from me on (his 

 subject would not c'ome amiss, I give the 

 following bit of n y experience: 



I have a set of pure whtc eggs of the 

 Bluebird, taken from a small box uaded to 

 the side of a corn-crib. May 6th, 1886, near 

 Frankfort, Kan. The eg ,s, tive in number, 

 are of the average size and .shape; the nest 

 was like otluis 1 Lave seen, and the birds 

 which I saw at a distance of only a few- 

 feet, weie exactly like others of the same 

 species, with the exception that the female 

 had lest all of her tail feathers, probably 

 the work of old Tabby. 



This same pair (.which I knew by the 

 "tail mark " ot the female) completed a set 

 of four blue eggs iu abi.iut a moutli from the 

 time I took the white set, and in the latter 

 part of July they again laved and brought 

 forth young. This time three blue eggs. 



From these few observations I feel pos- 

 itive that " albino eggs'" are oidy freaks, and 

 that one bird is as apt to lay thtni as 

 another, and the oidy thing that strikes nu' 

 as being peculiar, is this; that a Bhrebird 

 either lays an entirely white or an entirely 

 blue set, whereas, other birds, v/hen they 

 (Zf lay an "albino, "it is 0UI3' one or two 

 while the rest oi the set are of the normal 

 c:olor. 



This will answer W. J. S., in . Dec. Oolo- 

 <;iST, at least as far as I am able. 



D. B. R. , Beattie, Kan. 



'88, THE OOLOGIST, '88, 



We liave a. few complete' sds of the 

 OoLOGiST for 1888 left, unbound. I'rice 

 .50 events. Order ([uick if you Wiiut a .set. 

 Address, The OOLOGIST, Albion, N .Y. 



