126 



THE OOLOGIST. 



The note of the Black Snowbird is a chirp 

 common, however, to nearly all the Frin- 

 gillidae, so that it is not distinctive. It 

 also has another note, not so frequently 

 uttered as the last, which somewhat re- 

 sembles the clicking of the bird's bill: 

 Still another, which I have only in the 

 Spring, consists of the syllable "tew," tril- 

 led, and given with a peculiar intonation, 

 impossible to express on paper. Besides 

 these, it often gives in the Spring, just be- 

 fore departing, a trill almost exactly, like 

 that of the Chipping Sparrow. All, except 

 the last two, of these notes are frequently 

 uttered on the wing. 



The above mentioned sounds are entitl ed 

 only to the name of notes, but the Snow- 

 bird has a true song, heard only in the 

 Spring, consisting of mellow notes strung 

 together into a rambling ditty. All the 

 individuals of a flock usually sing at once, 

 and the effect is much as when the Robins 

 are singing early on a Spring morning, but 

 indescribably softer and sweeter. 



The Snowbird is one of our most useful 

 winter birds, its only rival being the Tree 

 Sparrow; farmers do well in encouraging 

 both. I have seen entire fields grown up 

 with weeds, cleaned out ; that is, the seeds 

 were cleaned out by these inda strious and 

 energetic little birds, whose small crop is 

 compensated for by their numbers. Even 

 when insects were to be obtained, the crops 

 of the few birds I examined were rilled 

 wholly with seeds. Many a time on a 



mild winttr's day have I stood by and 

 watjched a flock of these restless little birds 

 'i in ■ajfield, the lazier part merrily hopping 

 -arehrld 1 on the ground, picking up the 

 "seeds' 'vrhitiH their more industrious neigh- 

 bors'" on the weeds above had obligingly, but 

 i ujiin^ntiona-'dy; taken the trouble to shake 

 down fox them, ir >u 

 • The'^ev/brrd breeds from the New 



England States and New York northward, 



i:a .1 ■>>>' T^dd fjwdw : ilia 



but, is also known, tQjnejS| in the higher 



,rnojm^ajn' l rjamgeSjK o| ,mthi6,iiState (Penn- 

 sylvania), li-im; LiW<A'E:<&s ll^Beaver, Pa. 

 tio nalgg&ita signia b v«ja I iftqA 

 dilir ■%a&qm.oo ni , iaey, sidi lo h 

 .swri'isGB hsiBoxdi-sildW 



Notes for Collectors. 



CEMENT. 



B. fine whitening 2 oz. 



Gum Arabic 2 oz. 



Finest flour . . ^ oz. 



Ox-gall one teaspoonful. 



The whole to be dissolved and mixed with 

 water into thick paste. This is well adapted 

 for fixing shells, bird's eggs or any other 

 purpose. 



An excellent way to preserve bird's eggs 

 for cabinet is as follows : After blowing the 

 contents out of the eggs, suck the blow pipe 

 full of clean water and inject it into the egg 

 with force. This cleans the shell thorough- 

 ly. When the shell gets dry, which will be 

 in a day or two, get a small glass syringe, 

 which can be purchased at any drug store 

 for ten or twenty cents, and inject the empty 

 shell with a strong hot solution of Nelson's 

 gelatine. It can be bought at any grocery 

 store. Blow this out again while warm and 

 wash the shell in hot water before it gets 

 dry. This method varnishes the inside of 

 the shell, and makes those that have lost 

 their internal pellicle or lining on inside very 

 much stronger. I tried this method on a 

 pair of night hawk's eggs, of which species 

 the delicate, grayish-blue tint soon fades. I 

 injected one in the manner described and 

 the other was not. In the first the grey is 

 perfectly defined, in the other it has entirely 

 disappeared and is of a dirty white color. 

 Those that have already lost their color are 

 greatly improved by this method. 



The young Oologists who have not the 

 ready money to buy a pair of climbing irons 

 and want to go egg collecting that day can 

 apply to the Central Telegraph office in any 

 town and they will generally let you have a 

 pair for the day by giving security. 



The only difficulty in using the climbers' 

 irons for making the ascent of large trees is 

 that it is very hard to hold on with the 

 hands. I have fixed a piece of barbed wire, 

 same as is used for fences in the country. 

 The piece can be made from two to six feet 

 in length, bending the ends of the wire into 

 small loops, and tying a cloth around each 

 loop to keep from hurting the hands and to 



