344 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. Si, 1889. 



tive Anatomy of tlie Raven," that promises to be oi' great 

 service to students. 



Mr. Geo. B. Sennett, representing the Committee on 

 Bird Protection, made a verbal report. He referred to 

 the satisfactory results that had been obtained in Penn- 

 sylvania, where not only excellent laws had been passed 

 to protect the birds, but where also public interest had 

 been aroused to such an extent that the Legislature had 

 made a grant of $ 19,000 to enable the State Ornitholo- 

 gist, Dr. B. Harry Warren, to prosecute and publish his 

 researches on economic ornithology in the fullest manner. 



The first paper was by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, entited 

 "Observations on the Avifauna of Arizona." The Doctor 

 has just returned after a stay of some years in this most 

 inviting field, and his paper was, as might have been ex- 

 pected, replete with good things, and throughout of 

 unusual interest. It is satisfactory to know that we may 

 look forward to the publication of this as well as of other 

 zoological papers at greater length and in permanent 

 form as soon as the necessary preparations can be made. 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam followed with "Remarks on San 

 Francisco Mountain and Vicinity (Arizona) from the 

 Faunal Standpoint." Dr. Merriam has just returned from 

 a three months' sojourn in this region also. He has made 

 a special study of its fauna, and many of his conclusions, 

 as he bluntly announced, are diametrically opposed to 

 those of the previous speaker. The Doctor's remarks 

 were illustrated by charts and are understood to be a 

 prodrome of a work on the subject, the appearance of 

 which will be awaited with great expectations. 



Mr. Frank M. Chapman then came forward with a 

 paper, "The Winter Destruction of the Bobolink (Doli- 

 ehonyx oryzivorus) with Remarks on its Routes of Migra- 

 tion." He showed three routes of migration across the 

 West Indies to South America, and also that of the three 

 the least likely one, that in which was an open sea 400 

 miles across, was the course pursued by the main body. 



His second paper, on "The Changes of Plumage in the 

 Bobolink," was equally original. He showed that the 

 bobolink moults twice in the year, that its nuptial dress 

 acquired in early spring at first shows each black feather 

 with a broad margin of brown, which subsequently is 

 worn and broken off so as to leave the bird in complete 

 black plumage. He illustrated this point with numerous 

 specimens. 



Mr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., read a most interesting not 

 to say humorous paper on "Birds that have Struck the 

 Statue of Liberty. Bedloe's Island, New York Harbor." 

 He enumerated the species killed, and remarked on the 

 great proportion of Maryland yellowthroats, which con- 

 stituted fully half of the victims. The paper, though 

 replete with facts and figures, was often in a very light 

 vein, and in some parts even descended to the comic. It 

 was, however, well leceived by all but a reporter present, 

 whose paper became the object of some of the speaker's 

 satirical remarks. 



Mr. Dutcher read a paper from the pen of Professor R. 

 W. Whitfield, on "Abundance of the Wild Pigeon in 

 Central and Eastern New York in 1835." The Professor 

 had described the great extent of the flock and the ruth- 

 less degree of the slaughter that prevailed in this region. 

 The Hon. C. N. Merriam, who was present, also offered 

 some remarks on the same subject and to the same effect, 

 and was subsequently invited to put them on paper for 

 publication in the Avk. 



Dr. Merriam referred to the great change of nesting 

 habits that has been adopted by this bird within the last 

 half century. Formerly all nesting was done at great 

 "rookeries," where many thousand built nests without 

 attempting to conceal them. Now the bird was not 

 known to nest excepting in isolated pairs, and this change 

 the speaker believed would save the birds from extinction. 



On the third day after the inevitable routine business, 

 Dr. Geo. B. Grinnell, as chairman of the Audubon Monu- 

 ment Committee, was called on for a report. He made a 

 verbal report of progress, asking that the committee be 

 continued till certain proposed schemes for the prosecu- 

 tion of the matter should be developed. 



Resolutions were then passed of thanks to the Presi- 

 dent and Board of the American Museum for courteously 

 placing the rooms at the disposal of the A. O. U. ; to Dr. 

 Merriam for six years of unflagging service as secretary ; 

 and to the Linnasan Society of New York, for the hand- 

 some lunch provided each day by them for the union and 

 its guests. 



A motion to limit the amount to be expended on lunches 

 in the future was lost. Mr. Ernest E. Thompson pro- 

 posed that at the next annual meeting all members in- 

 terested in photography as an adjunct of ornithology and 

 in all kinds of ulustration be invited to bring specimens 

 to form an exhibition and assist in ventilating the whole 

 subject of cheap accurate illustration. Mr. Brewster 

 proposed to call in the aid of a stereopticon and on motion 

 of Dr. Mearns the matter was referred to the Council. 



The first paper of the day was by Mr. Leverett M. 

 Loomis, "Observations on some of the Summer Birds of 

 the Alpine Portions of Pickens County, South Carolina." 

 He exhibited a number of birds supposed to be exclusively 

 western which he had taken in Carolina; among them 

 were willow thrush, russetthrush, GrinnelPs water thrush, 

 Brewer's blackbird and Leconte's sparrow. 



The next two papers were read by Col. N. S. Goss, the 

 genial representative of Kansas ornithology. In the 

 first he denied the validity of the frosted variety of the 

 poor-will (Phalcenoiitilvs nnttalli nitidus), in the second 

 he mentions the occurrence of Anas maculosa (of Sen- 

 nett) in Kansas, but disputed its claims to rank as a 

 species. In his proposed reduction of the former to the 

 rank of a subspecies it is believed that the Council will 

 uphold Col. Goss. 



Mr. Jonathan Dwight next read on " Some Michigan 

 Birds Observed near the Straits of Mackinaw During 

 1888/' a most interesting paper, well read and well writ- 

 ten, with characteristic outcropping of the humorous. 

 Though the expedition described was productive of good 

 results, it failed in one of its main objects, viz., the dis- 

 covery of the passenger pigeon on its' nesting grounds. 

 " On the Western Form of the Warbling Viero," was the 

 title of the next on the list, the author Dr. Mearns. 



The meeting then retired to the adjoining room, where 

 Prof. Ridgway was ready with a vast a array of skins of 

 shore larks to demonstrate and explain the" remarkable 

 extent to which subspecies have been recognized in the 

 group, and in every case he came off with flying colors 

 and compelled the doubters and scoffers to admit that 

 after all the recognition of these numerous forms must 

 be something more than a merely arbitrary hair-splitting. 



The rest of the day was spent in discussing shore larks, 

 and as there were yet many papers ahead, a motion was 

 put and unanimously carried to prolong the session for a 

 fourth day. 



On the' fourth morning (Nov. 14) Mr. Ridgway in the 

 chair; Dr. J. A. Allen presented by title a paper on the 

 Maximilian types in the American Museum. Another on 

 the extensive variation to which certain South American 

 flycatchers of the genus Elaenea are subject. The ex- 

 tremes in the same species being divergent enough to 

 warrant generic separation but for the fact that the in- 

 tergradation is so complete. 



He then remarked at some length on a recently pub- 

 lished Waterhouse's "Index Generum Avium." He ex- 

 pressed his regret that the 13th instead of the 10th edition 

 of Linne had been selected as the starting point; he also 

 criticised certain insular - methods and pointed out a 

 number of errors, omissions and inconsistencies, but he 

 characterized the work as a whole as one of the highest 

 value to the student of taxonomy. 



"Remarks on Dr. Blancbard's Report to the Congres 

 Internationale de Zoologie, on a Code of Nomenclature 

 Presented at the Paris Session. 1889," was the next sub- 

 ject by the same able speaker. This code he referred to 

 as even more radical than that adopted by the A. O. U. 

 The starting point for binominalism in ornithology was 

 fixed at 1700 instead of 1758, as with Americans. The 

 law of priority is to be as rigidly enforced as with us, but 

 the terms are to be euphoniously latinized, and in this 

 Dr. Allen opined that Americans would yet concur. 



Mr. Frank M. Chapman presented a paper on the forms 

 of Maryland yellowthroat, describing a new form {ignota) 

 from Florida. 



The next paper was by Dr. Allen, on "To what Extent 

 is it Profitable to Recognize Geographical Variation 

 among North American Birds." After reviewing the 

 attitudes of American ornithologists toward taxonomy, 

 during the last quarter of a century, and describing the 

 "oscillations" between the two extremes of "lumping" 

 and "splitting" in matters of geographical variation, he 

 proceeded to outline the present state of affairs and to 

 utter words of caution to the advocates of fine subdivision. 

 He was of the opinion that little was to be gained by 

 naming forms which were indistinguishable excepting 

 by an expert with an enormous series of skins at hand. 

 Much exercise of discretion and common sense, he be- 

 lieved, would be necessary in such matters to avoid 

 bringing "our beneficent system of trinomials into con- 

 tempt." 



In the discussion which followed Messrs. Allen, Goss 

 and Brewster took part. Mr. Brewster expressed his 

 belief that differences patent to the lay following rather 

 than those perceptible to the expert only, should be 

 deemed worthy of recognition. 



Dr. Allen then addressed the meeting on the status and 

 distribution of "The Forms of the Thryothorus ludovici- 

 anns Group of Wrens," illustrating his remarks with 

 numerous specimens. 



Mr. Frank M. Chapman presented a note on Cyanoeitta 

 stelleri littoralis, recently described by Maynard, from 

 Vancouver's Island. Mr. Chapman emphatically rejects 

 the new race, claiming it to be a merely individual phase. 

 In this he was supported by Mr. Brewster. 



Mr. Chapman's next paper, on "Peculiarities of Color- 

 ation in the Woodpeckers of the Genus Dryobates from 

 the Northwest Coast." was presented by title only. 



Mr. Sennett exhibited a number of unusually interest- 

 ing birds, among them a young robin with a hawklike 

 bill; some motmots with the tail entire, others with the 

 shaft stripped in the well-known racket-shaped form ; a 

 sora from Erie, Pa., which, while not a melano, was re- 

 markably dark in its general color and obscure in its 

 markings, and a rose-breasted grosbeak with the whole 

 throat rosy to the bill. 



" Notes on Some of the Birds of Orange County, Flor- 

 ida," by D. Mortimer, was presented by title only. Mr. 

 Brewster read a note on "The Occurrence of the Little 

 Brown Crane in Rhode Island," and another on " The 

 Western Form of the Purple Martin." He stated that 

 while no expert can distinguish the male of the Eastern 

 and Western forms, no tyro need confound the females; 

 he also described the males as booming after the manner 

 of the nighthawk, a habit never noticed in the Eastern 

 martin. His record of the Canada jay in Massachusetts 

 called forth remarks from Messrs. Goss and Thompson. 



Mr. Erne9t E. Thompson referred to the habit of erratic 

 migration of the species, and mentioned the sudden ap- 

 pearance of a great number of Canada jays which is said 

 to have occurred at Toronto in 1837, when the species 

 became as common in the streets as house sparrows now 

 are; although both before and since it was unknown. Mr. 

 Brewster, in response, spoke of another great migration 

 of these birds along the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



Late in the afternoon the meeting adjourned to meet 

 again at Washington on the third Tuesday of November, 

 1890. 



A TAMED RUFFED GROUSE. 



BANGOR, Me., Nov. 12— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I witnessed a strange, and to me an almost unpre- 

 cedented sight this morning, viz. : a perfectly tame, full 

 grown ruffed grouse. It is a fine large male bird. I at 

 first, in passing the window on the street, thought it a 

 skilled specimen of the taxidermist's art. I stopped, went 

 into the store, and upon inquiring of the proprietor, 

 learned its history. It was an acquisition of but a few 

 days' possession. He found it in almost an expiring state 

 from starvation, in an unoccupied house in the suburbs 

 of our city. You know of the wild frenzied flight of 

 these birds in autumn, frequently dashing themselves to 

 death against houses or windows; several have been thus 

 killed in our city this season. This one seems to have 

 dashed through a window of a deserted house, and not 

 being able to find its way out, was almost in articulo 

 mortis when picked up. With much difficulty it was 

 restored. A drop of water was inserted in its mouth, 

 then a bit of grape pulp, and so little by little nourished, 

 until the bird now feeds kindly and confidently from the 

 hand. It is almost omnivorous in its tastes. Takes clover 

 leaves, raw cabbage, grape, apple, parched corn, or what 

 is known as "popcorn," corn, birch buds, bread, etc. 

 Solitary, silent starvation, seems to have annihilated the 

 wild unconquerable instinct. 



The secret to a door seems here to have been opened to 

 its possible domestication. Its kind-hearted possessor is 

 already inquiring round among the boys for a partner and 



wife for his solitary pet. Some starving imprisoned bird 

 may yet be found by the farmer boys, beneath the snow 

 crust after some winter storm, and allow us to carry out 

 this curious experiment to domesticate a hitherto deemed 

 incorrigibly untameable bird. E. M. Sttlwell. 



PAWNEE HERO STORIES AND FOLK- 

 TALES* 



fJ^HlS book is from a loving hand, and that being so, 

 JL there is a deeper philosophy in it than any cold 

 pedant could possibly give. Pedants, pseudo-philosophers, 

 can fling names at you, long courses of facts which may 

 ride you round and round in a circle without seeming 

 ever to make you touch anything. They are not of much 

 use. Give me the horse that is not fixed on a track like 

 the wooden animal of the merry-go-round, but one with 

 life, instinct, scent — that keen scent which scents the 

 real in the air — his oats, if you please; that animal that 

 has sense enough to go to his provender; the man who 

 knows where the real food of humanity is, and who, 

 when he says "Come here and feed," will give you some- 

 thing to eat worth your while. 



"Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk Tales" is such a pas- 

 ture. The real life of the Indian is touched here. Here 

 you find, not the noble creature to pose as your specimen, 

 not the ganglion of nerves to furnish a name to the 

 worldwide nomenclature of science — something to label 

 and put in a cabinet; but here you find — your brother. 

 Separated some removes from you, owing to a different 

 mode of life, different habitat, different luck some time 

 or other. But he is religious, like you: his first care, like 

 yours, is to get something to eat— to which end he may 

 migrate, maraud, fight and get into lasting enmities and 

 revenge: he gets along well enough with his lodge neigh- 

 bor; he has, in the main, much grander and more digni- 

 fied thoughts and conceptions than such as are likely to 

 fall to a man who, for instance, is always poring over 

 books of account, or always writing letters, or always 

 trying to get rich by trading with people— the Indian's 

 life gives him some advantages that way. He traverses 

 the prairie — the prairie is boundless; he sees the stars at 

 night; he is swift, on foot or horseback: he is cold with 

 the wind, warm with the sun; his eye is on the river bot- 

 toms, the rolling bluffs, the beautiful horizon: he is hand 

 in hand with nature. Often he is tense — when he hunts, 

 when he rides beside the buffalo; he is abandoned, at 

 times, to his full strength, Ms full energy, his full wits; 

 so he lives; and, living, he gets that much nearer to God, 

 nearer than we do who trot over our pavements day after 

 day, enter our stores, and do and think all things in our 

 own miniature, unlasting world erected by our own 

 hand to the exclusion of nature. 



In this book of Mr. GrinnelPs we get near to the Indian 

 as he is (no, let us say, in shame, as he was). We get 

 near his heart, his soul. Mr. Grinnell has sympathy; not 

 the mock sentimental thing that makes you drivel- 

 though a drivel may not necessarily be out of place— but 

 that broader sympathy that puts him, and you, if you 

 have it, on a plane with the Indian, because it reduces 

 you all to your lowest terms, or, rather, one may say, 

 your highest terms; it reduces you to your simplest terms, 

 that is, to your highest terms; you on the earth, on the 

 prairie, wherever you are; Tirawa, God, in heaven, i. e.,, 

 outside of you: there are the three things, the earth, the 

 maker of the earth, and you on the earth; therefore, you 

 can walk with the Indian, as you can, perhaps better 

 than you can in many cases with the white man. That 

 is the atmosphere you get from Mr. Grinnell's book. It 

 is wholesome. You can sniff it in by the handfuls, and 

 it is just as bracing to you as that exhilarating, actual 

 air of the Plains is, where the Pawnees ranged and 

 hunted and fought and felt. 



This is not taking up your time with philosophizing; it 

 is only giving you the quality of the air that sweeps 

 through the "Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales." You 

 can not give it by simply telling what words are in the 

 book, what its Table of Contents is. You cannot give it, 

 either, by saying merely some other things, which, how- 

 ever, must be said, For instance, it is a rare thing that 

 a translator, an interpreter, can so sink his own indi- 

 viduality and ways of thought as to let a person speak 

 through him as through a tube. Yet, in half of this book, 

 which gives narratives by one Pawnee and another in 

 their own words, the writer of this book, who brings these 

 tales before us, has absolutely effaced himself. No mat- 

 ter how hard you try, that is hard to do. Here, the In- 

 dian speaks to us; we are in his lodge; our elbow is near 

 Ids; the pipe is before us; we hear him speak. Here 

 again sympathy is at work. 



Perhaps Mr. Grinnell could not have made a fitter or 

 greater present to the Indians for telling him these tales, 

 than he has made, by thus just letting these stories stand 

 as they came to him. For, it is certainly a wonderful 

 thing, in what an artistic way those stories" are told. Let 

 any one reading the "Hero Stories," stop and think as he 

 reads; let him observe how well-rounded those stories 

 are, and yet how not a superfluous word is used: let him 

 observe the exquisite proportion of the story, the fine 

 balance between description and action, between the 

 treatment of the subjective and the objective, between 

 the thoughts in the man's mind and the mention of his 

 motives on the one hand, and on the other hand the 

 working out of those motives in the action — or rather, 

 the action as being accounted for by those motives. Any 

 one who has attempted to write a story will be well 

 aware of this besetting difficulty, this art of putting the 

 mind of man and his action both properly before you, so 

 as to represent humanity as it is and make it all seem real. 

 It would be hard to find more artistic stories than these 

 natural ones of the Pawnees are. 



Mr, Grinnell mentions their great gesticulatory vocab- 

 ulary, their acting. It all leads one to think, to wonder, 

 whether there has not been a greater mind in the Indian 

 than most of us have given him credit for. Because he 

 has what we call savage ways, that is to say, natural 

 ways, we have despised him. He has seemed simple. 

 Because he can not do calculus, we think him mindless. 

 But what is the mark, really, of greatness of mind? a 

 knowledge of calculus, being used to mathematics? or 

 that simplicity that bares the human breast to final 



* Pawnee Ilero Stories and Folk-Tales. With Notes on the 

 Origin, Customs and Character of the Pawuee People. Bv George 

 Bird Grinnell. Clotb. 417 pages. Illustrated. Price, $2.00. New 

 York: Forest and Stream Publishing Company, No. 318 Broad- 

 way. 



