60 



THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



THE 



BOTANIST 



a monthly devoted to birds and flowers. 



Joseph E. Blain, Publisher. 

 NAi^iLLARD N, Cluxe, Editor. 



Articles on subjects of interest to Botanists and 

 Ornitliologists solicited from all. 



TEEMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. 



One Subscription, six months, - - 30 cents. 

 One Subscription, one year, - - - 35 cents. 

 Single Copies, - - - - - - 3 cents. 



Advertising- rates made known on application. 



If manuscript is accepted the author will be noti- 

 fied at once. Rejected manuscript will be returned 

 when accompanied by stamps. We reserve the 

 right to edit all manuscript. 



Address all communications to 



Joseph E. Blain, Binghamton, N. Y. 



second-class 



Vol. I. AUGUST, 1891. No. VIII. 



The January and February issues of 

 this magazine are entirely exhausted 

 and we have less than fifty copies of 

 the March number remaining. Those 

 who wish to have their files of the 

 Ornithologist and Botanist as nearly 

 complete as possible should order the 

 numbers they lack, at once. Until the 

 March numbers are gone, we will fill 

 subscriptions beginning with that num- 

 ber for only thirty cents. Order now ! 



This journal will be sent on trial, to 

 any address, for the rest of the year 

 ( four months ) for a silver dime, llow 

 can you spend ten cents better ? 



The result of the vote for state flower 

 in this state was a great surprise to the 

 friends of the goldenrod. As this flow- 

 er was ahead of the rose last year, when 

 neither had a majority, it was thought 

 that the goldenrod would have an easy 

 victory; but the rose won by a majority 

 of nearly ninety thousand votes. The 



goldenrod was objected to because it 

 was a weed and the rose was in disfavor i 

 in some quarters from being the emblem | 

 of England. There are scores of flow- i 

 ers in the state more appropriate for a 

 state flower than either rose or golden- 

 rod. 



The swamp thistle ( Cnicus mnticum), 

 that begins to bloom early in August, 

 seems to possess great atti-actions for 

 the ruby-throated hummingbird. No- 

 where, in late summer, can so many 

 hummingbirds be found as about these 

 thistles. The birds ajDpear quite tame 

 also, often darting toward the observer 

 and hovering a few feet before him till 

 satisfied that no harm is intended. One 

 could spend hours in noting their hab- 

 its. Although small, the birds are very 

 pugnacious and if one trespasses upon 

 another's feeding ground, a fight is the 

 immediate result. 



Of all the spring and summer months, 

 August has the least bird-music. The 

 finch tribe is nearly silenced and the 

 bushy wayside fences are full of rest- 

 less brown coated birds. In the woods 

 the vireo petulantly calls wait, the nut- 

 hatch's nasal call echoes among the 

 trees, and the chickadee has taken to 

 -vhistling his spring note of e-phe-be. 

 An occasional song from the flicker or 

 robin recalls thoughts of spring to our 

 minds but the birds are thinking of 

 autumn. Before August ends, the first 

 of the migratory birds will have begun 

 their southward journey. First to leave 

 us are the chimney-swifts and night- 

 hawks and with their dissapearance the 

 scenes begin to shift, each day making 

 some change, till the flowers are dead 

 and the fields deserted. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Vol., I No. 1 of the Antiquarian has 

 made its appearance. It is a neat 16 

 page magazine devoted to archaeology 

 and kindred subjects. If future num- 



