THE COLLECTORS' MONTHLY. 



weems to have been happily conceived, while each 

 page bears evidence of the writer's Intense love 



of nnture and hlH ability not only to observe in- 

 telligently, but to express felicitously the aspects 

 of nature and the varied traits of Mrd-lHe 1 nat 

 comes under review. It is evidently the work of 

 not only nn enthusiastic bird-lover and field n.'it- 

 Urallst, but of a writer who is fully competent for 

 the pleasant task he has undertaken. As a pop- 

 ular exposition of the life-histories of the birds of 

 Eastern North America. "Our Birds in their 

 Haunts" will doubtless meet with the cordial 

 welcome it so well deserves; while its freshness 

 and originality make the work a valuable contri- 

 bution to the literature of North American 

 oriuthology. Thanking you most heartily for 

 the pleasure its perusal has afforded me, 1 re- 

 main Sincerely yours, 



.1. A. Allen, 

 President of the Ornithologist Union, Editor 

 of the "Auk," OnmbridKe. Mass. 



{Written for the Collectors' Monthly.) 

 The Wild Turkey. 



As I have never noticed anything 1 in 

 our journals about this grand bird, I 

 will w rite a few notes on this great game 

 bird. Twenty-five years ago wild turkeys 

 were perhaps more plentiful here than 

 domestic turkeys are to-day, but those 

 glorious days are now a thing of the 

 past, and the time is not far distant, 

 when the wild turkey will be extinct. It 

 is a hard matter to find them, and still 

 harder to kill one. I killed two males 

 last spring (March 7th and May 5th '91) 

 and on Nov. 27th I killed a female. 

 Cow's Key says that the two males are 

 of the Mexican form and that the female 

 was an Eastern Turkey. I am perhaps 

 the first to learn that we have both 

 kinds in this part of Texas. They make 

 their nesl on the "round, sometimes un- 

 der a shrub or bush, and lay from 8 to 

 18 creamy, white eggs, freckled all over 

 with redish brown. Will some one tell 

 me where the wild turkeys are plen- 

 tiful? Kit Atkinson. 



Dime Box, Texas. 



(For the Collectors' Monthly.) 

 The Black Billed Cuckoo. 



(Coccyzus erythrophthnlmus.) 

 How many times have we, while 



stretched oul under ili«- spreading 

 branches of some ancieni haw tree, heard 



the deep guttral kow-kow-kow of our 

 cuckoo. And whenever tin- peculiar 

 notes of this bird is heard above the 



sylvan chorus, t ho mind reverts to the 

 times when through, the thick foliage of 

 the underbrush we first caughl ;i glimpse 



of our friend. There he sits on some 

 twig looking at us askance out of his 

 fiery eyes, and then with a laughing crow 

 he flies off. 



There are few birds that, for graceful 

 shape and movements, can compare 

 with the cuckoo; his graceful brown 

 coat bespeaks the polished gentleman. 

 1 well remember the time when I caught 

 sight of my first cuckoo*s nest. Careful- 

 ly .approaching the nest, [saw the bird 

 sitting. How its eyes seemed to dilate 

 with terror, as, keeping my eyes fixed on 

 the bird, 1 cautiously approached it. I 

 had often heard of the power with which 

 snakes are commonly supposed to be en- 

 dowed,— that of charming birds — and 

 this reminded me forcibly of it. How- 

 ever, I suppose that these actions were 

 due merely to the bird's wishing to be un- 

 noticed, and knowing perhaps, that her 

 blue eggs would attract more notice than 

 her own dark form, she had sat close. 

 Notwithstanding her close sitting habits, 

 what a touchy bird she is. Rise her off 

 the nest, even to take a peep at her sky- 

 colored ego-s, and the next day she has 

 already started a new home in some 

 bush. 



Then the nest. What a flimsy, airy 

 seat it is. How the drafts, when ir 

 blows, must strike on the breast of the 

 mother, threatening neuralgia, cold in 

 the head, and numerous other ills which 

 are caused by drafts. Sometimes the 

 eggs may be seen through the interstices 

 of the sticks which form the bottom. 



The eggs of this species are as I have 

 before intimated, blue, or rather, bluish 



