54 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Devoted to Birds and Birds' Eggs 



THIRD PUBLICATION YEAR. 



S. L. WILLARD, EDITOE, 



AssLSced by able Associate Editors. 



TERMS: 

 Forty cents a Year in advance, postage paid. 



Items on Ornithology and Oijlogj" solicited. 



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THE OOLOGIST, 

 Oneida Stkeet, Utica, ]sr. Y. 



SEPTEMBER, 1877. 



but proved to be only an Indigo Bird. But 

 why such a nondescript and varied song? 

 The trait, if so it may be termed, must 

 have been confined to this bird : it could 

 not have been inherited from others of its 

 tribe. In the case of the Song Sparrow 

 and perliaps some other species, a percep- 

 tible deviation from tlic song frequently oc- 

 curs, but as this bird has naturally several 

 versions of its song, any slight irregularity 

 would not attract attention. With such 

 birds as conform to a certain song or note, 

 the Indigo Bird for instance, even a slight 

 wandering from it, is strikingly noticeable, 

 and when it comes to 1)0 so varied, and xu- 

 tered with such a ditl'erent impulse, as in 

 the case mentioned, it is all the more sin- 

 gular and inexplicable. Dr. AVheaton has 

 met with the same peculiarity iu the Song 

 Sparrow, having shot the specimen he men- 

 tions before he knew wliat species it was. 

 Young Meadow Larks will occasionally de- 

 liver singular notes, and the House Wren 

 and Pnrple Finch at times modify their 

 songs, and add to them a uumbei' of foreign 

 notes. 



The engraving of the egg of the Yellow- 

 winged Sparrow, which appeared iu the 

 August number was unavoidably misrepre- 

 sented, both in draughting and in printing. 

 We hope it will not be taken as an exam- 

 ple of future illustratious of eggs. 



CHANGES IN THE SONGS 

 BIRDS. 



OF 



"VrOT long since, we w^ere struck with the 

 -'-' peculiar song of a bird in the outskirts 

 of a deep wood. It was unlike anything 

 we had ever heard, and a due search for 

 the songster, sliowed it at first glance to be 

 an Indigo Bird {Gyanospiza cyanea), al- 

 though a repetition of the curious notes im- 

 pressed us it must be an altogether differ- 

 ent species, and thinking that perhaps it 

 might be a very interesting, as w^ell as prob- 

 ably rare, form, it was immediately shot, 



Dk. Brewer desires us to state that he 

 has made no arrangements and contemplates 

 none with the publishers of Jasper's work 

 on birds, iu regard to an illustrated North 

 American Oology. No proposals have been 

 made to him by that house, and he would 

 not be at liberty to entertain any. He is 

 not without the hope and expectation of 

 aiding in the issue of an illustrated work 

 on the eggs of the birds of North America, 

 in a style worthy of the subject, but exact- 

 ly by whom published or when it would be 

 presumptive to announce. Dr. Brewer's 

 private collection of eggs now numbers 651 

 North American species, including several 

 that other ornithologists regard as varieties. 



