84 



THE OOLOGIST. 



We have additional testimony to the 

 breeding of the Great Northern Shrike in 

 New York, from Mr, Aurthur B. Breese, 

 of Syracuse, who says in a private com- 

 munication : " On referring to my natural 

 history journal I find that I obtained a nest 

 of live Shrike's eggs about the latter part 

 of May, 1876. I was tramping through 

 an orchard south of Oneida, and started a 

 Shrike from a nest near the top of a half 

 dead tree. As the bird staid in the orchard, 

 I sat down for a few moments and shot it 



on its return to the nest. Ascending the 

 tree I found a loosely constructed nest made 

 of sticks, cat-tails and coarse grass exter- 

 nally, and lined with fine grass and horse- 

 hair ; the eggs were five in number, white 

 ground, thickly mottled with different shades 

 of drab." 



We have received the initial numbers of 

 one or two new amateur papers on natural 

 history, which will be noticed at farther 

 lenjjth in our next number. 



PROSPECTUS. 



A Monthly Journal devoted to the Study of Birds and Birds' Eggs. 



Tei^ni^s, ixjvtii ^dcupcft: 40 cents ct yecu\ 



ENLARGEMENTANDlMPFlOVEMENTWITHVOL.lv. 



The best amateur- Ornithologioxd writers secured for the coming Volume. 



UP patronage for the past year has 

 suggested to us the propriety of offer- 

 ing to the readers of The Oologist 

 the benefit of a better and more valuable 

 paper. We are enabled to make improve- 

 ments, which will at once not only, we 

 think, be favorably accepted by the collect- 

 or, but will make our journal the best oo- 

 logical paper in the counti'y. . We propose 

 to don a handsome cover, and by transfer- 

 ring our advertisements to this, give a page 

 additional of reading matter. Our oolog- 

 ical department will, as heretofore, be em- 

 braced in the first three pages, while the 

 succeeding ones will contain, besides the 

 usual quota of interesting ornithology, a de- 

 partment for literary notices and notes ; 



otherwise, our present style will not be ma- 

 terially changed. But, believing that the 

 change will be imanimously sanctioned by 

 our subscribers, and consideriug the extra 

 expense involved in these and attendant im- 

 provements, we shall raise the price of sub- 

 scription. With the March number we 

 shall issue a 



COLORED PLATE OF EGGS, 



which will be sent to every subscriber to 

 Volume IV. on receipt of 75 cents (includ- 

 ing subscription) ; the subscription price 

 to the journal alone will be 60 cents. 



A more definite statement of our propos- 

 ed work will be published in a subsequent 

 issue. 



S. L. WILLARD & CO. 



