78 



THE OOLOGIST 



There he hung napping his wings at a 

 great rate. Mr. Blancett said he knew 

 something must be done at once if at 

 all, so he ran up and grabbed the 

 Eagle by both wings, as near the body 

 as he could get hold. He then called 

 to his wife, who came out and opened 

 the door to an old shed, where they 

 chucked him in. I went over the next 

 morning as I wanted that eagle to 

 skin, so the old man shot it with a 

 22 rifle and brought it over for me 

 for the sum of $2.00 as he thought his 

 experience was worth that much. It 

 was a Golden Eagle, about two years 

 old I should judge from its plumage. 

 It was very poor, weighing only about 

 7 pounds, the wings measuring 5V 2 

 feet from tip to tip. I looked for more 

 Eagles this spring but did not see a 

 single one. 



Robert F. Backus, 



Canon City, Colo. 



THE WHISTLING SWAN 

 A Little Nearer Extinction 



The Auk, April 1918, (page 2) con- 

 tains the following item under its 

 "General Notes." 



On October 11 last, a flock of seven 

 swans (Olor columbianus) was seen 

 on the beach of the south side of the 

 river St. Lawrence at Cap. St. Ignace, 

 about forty miles below Quebec. All 

 these birds have been shot and six of 

 them have been sent to me in the flesh 

 to be stuffed. It is the second record 

 of the presence of the bird in our 

 province, that I know of. They were 

 quite tame and seem to be starved so 

 that the hunters easily shot them. — C. 

 E. Dionne, Que., Can. 



It should be said in praise of these 

 alleged sportsman of Quebec province 

 that they have brought this magnifi- 

 cent bird a little nearer to ultimate ex- 

 tinction by shooting this little flock of 

 seven of these birds while they were 

 "quite tame and seemed to be starved 



so that the hunters easily shot them." 

 It should likewise be recorded in favor 

 of the public officials of that province 

 that they permitted this disgraceful 

 thing to be done because, it may be 

 assumed, that if these poor Swans had 

 not been so nearly starved that the 

 officials of Quebec would not have 

 permitted the hunters to have under- 

 taken any serious physical effort in 

 destroying the second lot of these 

 birds that have ever been known in 

 the province. Apparently the theory 

 of these butchers was that the rarer 

 and the more defenseless the bird the 

 more certain should be its destruction 

 at the hand of the vandal with the 

 gun. — The Editor. 



"228 a 4 1918" 



The above figures written on each 

 one of a set of four eggs of the Ameri- 

 can Woodcock record the fact that the 

 season of 1918 opened for the editor 

 April 11, with the above prize, which 

 is the first personally taken set of the 

 eggs of this bird that have ever fallen 

 to our lot, though the bird has bred in 

 this county always and we have had 

 several sets of eggs taken here that 

 were collected by other collectors. — 

 Editor. 



fROM AN OLD TIMER 

 I am unable to understand how it 

 happened, that, after I had taken The 

 Oologist for nearly thirty years, I 

 should have dropped it as I did in 

 1912. I believe I intended being less 

 neglectful had not business matters 

 intervened. 



Recently I came into possession of 

 the last five volumns, thus completing 

 my file. However, this in itself, was 

 merely satisfaction, but perusing the 

 pages seemed like meeting old friends 

 after many years separation; and 

 hearing of many good things I had 

 missed. 



