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The Hawkeye Ornithologist and Ooi.ogist. 



TflR 



O^IT^OLOGIST ZOOLOGIST 



A MONTHLY MAGAZINE 

 DEVOTED TO ORNITHOLOGY AND KIN- 

 DRED SUBJECTS, AND GEOLOGY. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY 



E. B. Webster. F. D. Mead. 



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General Agent. — Ph. Heinsberger. Ms 

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Correspondence and items of interest relat- 

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NOTES. 



Our article on the "new preserva- 

 tive method" has been indefinite- 

 ly postponed owing to the ad. of Mr. 

 Oibbs in this issue. 



Orders have already been received 

 from several for those migration 

 blanks. Send ahead for them -we 

 want everyone to help us out in our 

 report. 



The present month's magazine is 

 somewhat smaller than the last, ow- 

 ing to the fact that we expect to be 

 crowded for time on the March issue, 

 of which we intend to print several 

 thousand copies. 



For several nights large flocks of 

 screech owls have been hovering 

 ■.around the cornices of big buildings 

 in Columbus. Ind. A dispatch says 

 an investigation was instituted, and 

 the discovery made that, "the owls 

 are catching and devouring hundreds 

 of English sparrows. They drag them 

 from their nests or roosting places be- 

 neath the cornices, carry them away 

 and devour them." 



A four-footed bird has been discov- 

 ered in South America. The "cigana" 

 (Opisthecmu cristata.) or "gipsy," as it 

 is called by the natives, lives on the 

 Anabiju River, in the island of Mar- 

 ajo. at the mouth of the Amazon, 

 and builds its nest in the reeds of the 

 "aninga," a large-leaved semi-aquat- 

 ic plant, which grows in dense masses 

 in the island swamps. The bird re- 

 sembles a pheasant, and is only four- 

 footed in early life. as. after a few- 

 days" existence, one pair of legs de- 

 velops into wings. 



There is at Leeds, Engl;; id, an or- 

 nithological association. Among 

 other things, they study the songs of 

 wild birds. Not long ago they 

 pitted a full-song, acclimated night- 

 ingale against an American mock- 

 ing-bird. The sang together, and 

 then they sang apart. First the 

 nightingale led off, until everything 

 he sang was duplicated and improved 

 upon by our national songster. Then 

 the mocking-bird struck off into a 

 new field of song. The nightingale 

 listened, but did not repeat. He 

 pined away and died within a week. 



