Correspondence.



255



CORRESPONDENCE.



DR. SHUFELDT’S FORTHCOMING MONOGRAPH.


Dear Dr. Renshaw,— As to my memoir on the Megapodiidce , I am just now

•expressing it down to Mr. Dudley Le Souef, Director of the Melbourne Zoological

Gardens, who has, with great kindness, offered to make the attempt to have it pub¬

lished somewhere for me in Australia. If you would like to say that much in your

magazine, you are quite at liberty to do so. The monograph will print about fifty

•octavo pages, and is illustrated by 44 figures on 21 plates. It describes the habits,

eggs, incubation, osteology, external characters, etc., of all the known mound birds

of the world, including the rare Maleo ; four of tire plates are in colour. I have but

slender hopes that this expensive piece of work will be out in print for at least a

year or two.


Practically I am at the head centre of ornithological activity Irere in America,

and in touch with all the museums in Washington. Should I be able to obtain

any news notes along such lines, pray command me to that end; it will afford me

pleasure to do what I can for you.


3356 Eighteenth Street, Yours very faithfully,


Washington, D.C. ; R. W. Shufeldt.


February 18 th, 1918.


BIRDS AND THE WINTER,


Mr. Allen Silver writes: The letters of my friends, Dr. Butler and Mr. Astley

(the latter, to whom I am, at present, indebted for a sight of the Magazine), and

also that by Miss Chawner, interest me with reference to the scarcity or otherwise

of birds. Since leaving hospital I find they are as numerous as usual in Suburbia

(not a great way from Dr. Butler’s). The garden has its three species of Tits, two

Thrushes (Song and Mistle), Blackbirds, Starlings, Hedge Accentors, Robins,

Wrens, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Redpolls, Wood Pigeons, Carrion Crows, Rooks.

Jackdaws, Skylarks, Wagtails. Pipits (Meadow), and Linnets pass over. On

Christmas morning I saw a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker on my largest pear-tree,

which remained some minutes so that I could tell its sex (it being a male), and a

hen Bullfinch, a day or so afterwards, came through. During the last cold snap,

a flock of Wild Geese passed over very low down, apparently making for the coast

waters. This summer in Monmouthshire I saw plenty of birds, and during a brief

s ay in Suffolk recently I saw a pair of Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers, Nut-hatches,

a Hawfinch, a Siskin, any amount of Tits, and several Creepers. Finches seemed

about as usual, but Song Thrushes were distinctly less, as also were Fieldfares

and Redwings. Mistle Thrushes were in full song, and I came across several Pied

and Grey Wagtails, one white, and two or three Kingfishers. Tawny Owls seemed

numerous, and a pair or two of Long-eared were in a plantation near the cottage in

which I stayed. Little Owls seem to have increased almost abnormally the last few

years, and are by no means rare there. Sparrow and Kestrel Hawks were seen,

and several Coot- and Moor- or Waterhen. My friend, Mr. Chas. Row, who lives in

the vicinity, said that he saw the biggest flock of Longtailed Tits he had ever seen

in his life whilst shooting in the woods, and a beater and others told me they seldom

brush ” without a “ cock ” (Woodcock) or two. Snipe are about as usual. Last



