22 



THE OOLOGIST. 



To return to Mr. Stone's interesting 

 letter I would quote as follows: 



"I was very fortunate with warblers 

 this year as I took fine sets of Ceru- 

 lean, Canadian, Pine, Magnolia and, 

 rarest of all, a beautiful set of Black- 

 burnian. I found two nests of Black- 

 throated Green but they are extremely 

 sensitive and deserted leaving one 

 nest undone and the other with one 

 egg. This particular place is very 

 rich in warblers and I have great ex- 

 pectations for next year. Lots of 

 Canadians, 12 or 15 pairs, Magnolia, 

 12 or 15 pairs; 3 or 4 pairs of Black- 

 throated Green, Black and White, also 

 3 or 4 pairs La. Water Thrush". 



I think all Oologists will agree that 

 Mr. Stone struck an Egg Collector's 

 paradise and I hope to be able to ac- 

 cept his invitation to "Come and see 

 me" some time next season. 



I have taken some rare sets of war- 

 blers, notably, Mourning, Nashville, 

 Golden-winged, Cerulean, Black- 

 throated, Blue etc., but Canadian, 

 Pine, Magnolia and Blackburnian 

 have always been among my un 

 attainable*. 



Ernkst H. Short. 



ODD AND RARE BIRDS. 



WONDERFUL COLLECTION FOR THE 

 SMITHSONIAN. 



Specimens Gathered on a Recent 

 Cruise on West Coast of Suma- 

 tra and Bay of Bengal. Dr. 

 Abbott's Researches. 



C W. Richmond, assistant curator 

 of the division of birds, which is locat- 

 ed in the Smithsonian Institution, is 

 busy arranging and identifying over 

 570 specimens of rare and curious birds 

 from Dr. W. L. Abbott's collection, 

 obtained from islands of the west coast 

 of Sumatra, in the Bay of Bengal, on 

 his recent cruise. There are strange, 

 foreign pigeons, hawks, swallows, 

 crows, orioles, owls and so on almost 

 without number. 



About six species of various colored 



considering the nest and nesting site I 

 unhesitatingly pronounced it a set of 

 Black-throated Blue. 



They are a creamy or buffy white 

 boldly spotted with lilac and splashed 

 with brown, no decided tendency to- 

 ward wreaths at larger ends. 



These eggs measure, .77x.58; ,76x.57; 

 .76x.56 and .75x.55; very large for this 

 warbler and remarkably even in size. 

 They are by far the prettiest set of 

 this bird that ye editor has ever been 

 privileged to view. 



Mr. Stone sent on for comparison 

 another authentic set of this bird ta- 

 ken from a similar nesting site in 

 Cortland Co., N. Y., in June 1899. 

 This set is remarkable in being so 

 far from typical both as to eggs and 

 nest. The nest is compactly and 

 neatly felted and in shape and con- 

 struction, except as to materials, it re- 

 sembles many examples of the Ameri- 

 can Redstarts art. 



All other nests of this bird that I 

 have observed were*loosely made and 

 rough in outline. 



The four eggs in this set are marked 

 very similar to typical sets of Mag- 

 nolia Warbler with ends well wreathed. 

 They are also very small measuring 

 .69x.52; .67x.52; .<57x.57 and .66x.53. 

 The ground color shows very little of 

 creamy tint and the markings are 

 more specks than spots. No blotches. 

 I have in my possession another set 

 I took near Buckbee's Corners, Mon- 

 roe Co., N. Y., last June, from an 

 exactly similar nesting site and nest 

 as Mr. Stone's set. They were badly 

 incubated when found. Size of eggs 

 is intermediate between the two sets 

 described above, in fact about typical. 

 Color creamy with a bluish tint boldly 

 blotched with brown in light shades, 

 heaviest at larger end but not decidedly 

 wreathed. Very few lilac shell mark- 

 ings on these eggs. A pretty set only 

 that the advanced stage of incubation 

 rendered large holes a necessity. 



