AJarch, 1881.] 
AND OOLOGIST. 
3 
with the proceeds of this work he obtained 
a still larger and better printing press. 
This has been iised in the printing of “The 
O oLOGisT nja to the paiblication of the first 
four numbers of Volume V ; the last eight 
numbers of this volume have issued at the 
office of a regular printer; Mr. Jos. M. 
Wade, the present editor and publisher, 
having undertaken its continuation on a 
basis wliich all lovers of the study will ap¬ 
preciate and acknowledge. 
The Oologist 
had much to con- 
tend with in 
gaining its pres¬ 
ent foothold, on 
not only Ameri¬ 
can, but foreign 
ornithologists, 
and especially 
oologists. Its 
list of subscri¬ 
bers is necessari¬ 
ly select. We 
have been fre¬ 
quently remind¬ 
ed of the rapid 
improvement 
that has gone on in the journal dur¬ 
ing its career of six years; five volumes 
oidy being published, one year being lost 
in unavoidable suspensions from lack of 
means and patronage ; and withall we take 
pardonable pride in its growth, as evidenc¬ 
ed by a comparison of number 1 of Vol¬ 
ume VI with the corresponding number of 
Volume I; and in expressing our desire 
that it be made the best journal of its kind 
in the world, we must call to our aid the 
experience of all working stiadents in our 
field, and ask our superiors to aid us all 
they can; for the editors of the journal, as 
one of our follow naturalists has said, must 
not be expected to know all about or¬ 
nithology themselves, but must be able to 
shape the collected information of others 
and distribute it for the benefit of the sci¬ 
ence. Descriptions of actual experience and 
oliserv.ition will be fully appreciated. 
“That Woodcock.’’ 
At last, through the kindness of Mr. 
Frank S. Wright, of Auburn, N. Y., we 
are enabled to give the true history of the 
wounded Woodcock with the stick through 
its breast. Mr. Merrill, of Bangor, Maine, 
the Taxidermist, who mounted the bird, 
writes to his friend as follows :—“On Octo¬ 
ber 9th, 1880, I received a Woodcock in 
the flesh from a friend who shot the same 
near this city. The breast of the bird was 
pierced by a stick 
about five inches 
long, not from 
^‘■side to side” as 
stated by some 
of the local pa¬ 
pers, but from 
the front through 
the breast, out at 
the side, and un-^ 
der the wing, (as 
our illustration, 
drawn by Mr. 
Merrill, shows.) 
The flesh of the 
bird was but lit¬ 
tle cut and had 
entirely healed, as also had the skin, so 
that the stick was fastened into the wound. 
The growth of the bird had apparently been 
stunted by the jjresence of the stick which 
was a perfectly straight piece of the stalk 
of Golden Rod or some growth of a like 
nature. This shows that the bird must 
have been pierced by alighting on the 
ground rather than by flying swiftly 
through the trees and being transfixed by 
a twig as the comments of some of oi;r 
local papers seem to imply.— Merrile. 
Scarlet Tanager’s NssT.-June 5th 1880 I 
found a nest of the Scarlet Tanager con¬ 
taining three eggs that were exactly like 
those of the cow-bird. I should like to know 
if tanager’s eggs ever vary enough to resem¬ 
ble those of the cow-bird, or is there anoth¬ 
er instance of a bird’s sitting on cow-bird’s 
eggs when there were none of her own in 
the nest. M. K. Barnum. 
