172 



THE OOLOGIST. 



the quail which once ventured to nest 

 on the lawn of the Brand place in 

 Norwich. 



There should be a whole bird-world 

 of squabs in mid-June; but is a week 

 gone and no wailing of baby orioles 

 in the elmtops, redwings have incom- 

 plete sets of eggs, and many thrashers 

 in full song have just 'begun to build. 

 Four kinds of warblers, who usually 

 have full sets June 4th, are still cov- 

 ering eggs, phoebes have not hatch- 

 ed, and quail and goldfinches have not 

 paired. Bobolinks are strangely si- 

 lent, and we do not know whether it 

 is the quiet incident to hreeding or 

 due to some mortality. The May 

 frosts killed many tanagers and 

 orioles. Mrs. Foster Child picked up 

 here several stiff and stark female 

 orioles. The field corn is a fortnight 

 behindhand and crows have more 

 thoroughly robbed the nests on our 

 preserve. I saw them at two robins' 

 nests in the orchard early this morn- 

 ing. They managed to spy out and 

 destroy an exquisitely marked set of 

 five thrasher's eggs well hidden on 

 the ground in a thicket of hawthorn 

 and red osier. 



The variation in the voices of our 

 birds at home is more noticeable than 

 usual this year. We see no variety 

 in the singing of grosbeaks, tanagers, 

 indigos, catbirds, robins and purple 

 finches — one scorebook answers for 

 all. But no two of our 'brown thrash- 

 ers present the same song, and there 

 is a wide difference in the music of 

 the bungalow song sparrows. We have 

 one midday singing thrasher in the 

 north meadow with so long a reper- 

 tory we ought not to class him with 

 other common performers. Nearer 

 home, we have another still greater 

 brown thrush with a 'cello voice of 

 good range, flexible, and with a throat 

 full of original trills. He entertains 

 ns in the morning from an apple tree 

 near the cottage, and at evening in 

 better voice, he thrills us from a sas- 

 safras tree over the Friendship Cat- 

 tery. A Baltimore oriole — a newcom- 

 er in these parts — has deceived me 

 many times lately by the resemblance 

 in his voice to the veery's song. The 

 oirole with the strange crack or 

 cackle in his voice flutes no more in 

 the Huntington elms on Broadway. I 



have before referred to the wild 

 mockingbird which far excelled its 

 rivals at Pinehurst. And still the 

 palm must he given to the caged St. 

 Augustine mocker cheaply priced at 

 $&00 which can outsing Italia's night- 

 ingales' or the toulbuls of the Orient. 

 C. L. RAWSON. 



Review. 



Report of New Jersey State Mu- 

 seum, Cloth, Illustrate, 1906. 



Contains besides the regular mu- 

 seum report, "The Amphibians and 

 Reptiles of New Jersey," toy Fowler, 

 covering Salamanders, Snakes, Toads, 

 Frogs, Lizards and Turtles, and also 

 a supplement to the 1905 report on 

 Fishes' of New Jersey hy same au- 

 thor. In addition to the numerous 

 text cuts there are 122 fine page 

 plates. 



A valuable addition to the scant sci- 

 entific hibliography on these Orders. 



FEATHERED GAME OF THE 

 NORTHEAST 



By WALTER H. RICH. With illustra- 

 tions by the author. 450 pages, 

 8vo, cloth, $3.00, net. Postage, 30 

 cents extra. 

 Here is a genuine sportsman's hook, 

 and at the same time one which is at 

 once interesting to the general reader 

 and professional ornithologist. It is 

 true that the casual reader will find 

 a great deal of detailed description 

 which he will omit unless on the look- 

 out for some special type of bird. But 

 interlarded with all this necessary 

 and painstaking material he will find 

 many hunting yarns and hits of out- 

 door wisdom which he cannot afford 

 to neglect. The hook is written by a 

 practical sportsman — one who has 

 hunted nearly every toird in New Eng- 

 land which he describes; it is devot- 

 ed to the so-called "game toirds," and 

 while it has 'been the author's intent 

 to write of them for the man whose 

 nature study has been conducted, 

 Roosevelt-like, in the open air and 

 over a gun-toarrel, it should 'interest 

 all lovers of hird life. 



Some ninety birds are carefully de- 

 scribed and located, nearly all of 

 them toeing illustrated in excellent 

 full^page half-tones. Special atten- 

 tion has been given to their common 

 names and habits on their feeding 

 grounds. 



