ORNITHOLOGIST 
AND 
1 
OOLOGIST. 
$1.00 per 
aHiunn. 
Established March 187;), 
.Joseph M. Wade, editor and pul)lisher. 
10 cents 
single copy. 
VOL. VI. 
ROCKVILLE, CONN., MARCH i88i. 
NO. I 
THE OOLOGIST. 
ITS HISTOKY FROM THE COMMENCEMENT. 
[BY TriE ASSOCIATE EDITOH.] 
During the winter of 1874^5, while con¬ 
ducting an ornithological department in a 
western amateur paper called The Reper¬ 
tory^ the writer with a very indefinite idea 
of his undertaking, but with a certain con¬ 
viction that the periodical literature of 
America poorly represented the science of 
oology; while the broader subject of ornith¬ 
ology did not count a solitary popular ser¬ 
ial devoted entirely to the v ants of those 
interested in birds and their eggs, conclud¬ 
ed to commence the publication of an ama¬ 
teur paper eminently for the Oologist. 
With no outside help, no money, and a 
limited experience, after having secured 
the promise of an imemployed printer to un¬ 
dertake the publication of a small monthly, 
called The Oologist, to be “issued,” as the 
first number states, “in the interests of col¬ 
lectors and naturalists,” he set himself to 
the task of supplying the material for the 
first number (the writer was then 16 years 
of age). This was published in March, 
1875, an eight page, small, octavo sheet, 
and consisted of short items and articles 
of a varying character; the bulk, however, 
being on oology. The plan of the paper, 
when started, was of a manifold nature; 
so much so that its existence was nearly 
crushed out on the publication of the first 
number, by the severe and unrelenting 
criticism uniformly thrust at it bj those 
few to whom the salutatory seemed a cri¬ 
terion of its immediate future. [The pre¬ 
sent copy of our little journal is a fair 
specimen of what we intend to produce for 
the next twelve months or more.] This 
criticism the editor frankly and advisedly 
pronounces well merited, and was certainly 
a great influence in re-forming its scope 
and literary aspect. As a sort of initiatory 
there was in the first issue a department 
shortly entitled “Story,” under which a 
senseless item, which was frequently band¬ 
ied about by the newspapers, was publish¬ 
ed ; certainly, the writer admits, very inap¬ 
propriate. The next department was “Ool¬ 
ogy.” Under this caption appeared several 
articles entitled respectively, “Birds’ Nests 
and Eggs,” “Nest and Eggs of the Broad¬ 
winged Hawk,” “Eggs and Nest of Black- 
throated Green Warbler;” “Oology,” and 
“Our Excursion,” supplemented by several 
small items. The editorial portion of the 
paper occupied, as in the last number, the 
top of the fourth page ; after which, under 
the departmental title, “American Birds,” 
were printed “American Game Birds,” “The 
Confined Purple Finch,” and a purported 
humorous piece, entitled “Abowt Robbinz.” 
The remaining portion of the paper was 
devoted to notes and items under the de¬ 
partments of “Foreign Birds,” “Sugar,” a 
supposed humorous subdivision (conduct¬ 
ed after the style of many of the amateur 
papers, by an appropriate editor, who pseu- 
donymed himself “Sweet-meat,” and illus¬ 
trated by one of the editor’s OAvn wood- 
cuts, well suited to the department but not 
above criticism,) “Ornithological Items,” 
“Exchanges,” “Correspondence,” “Miscell¬ 
aneous,” and “Advertisements.” 
No prospectus of the paper having been 
distributed, and no announcement of its 
proposed publication having been made, 
.uxcept to a few, personally, the first num¬ 
ber was a complete failure. The publisher 
and pro])rietor was at a loss to pay the 
