March, 1882.]' 
AND OOLOGIST. 
101 
shot near Edgartown, Wisconsin, Dec. 21, 
1881. It measured twenty-five inches in 
length, forty-four inch spread of wings 
and weighed 42^ omices. 
Song Sparrow {melospiza melodia) J. E. 
Nichols, Lansing, Michigan, reports shoot¬ 
ing a Song Spxrrow on Dec. 26th, 1881, 
and also verifies the statement that one was 
taken by Dr. H. A. Atkins one year ago. 
He also states that the Black backed three 
TOED Woodpecker announced in our Janu¬ 
ary number is the second specimen known 
to have been taken in Michigan. 
A Black-throated Green Warbler was 
taken at Highland Falls, N. Y., by Mr. A. 
Pall, November 23d, 1881. It was in Im¬ 
mature Plumage. 
Thomas G. Gentry, we are informed has 
resigned his position as teacher and is to 
devote his whole time to ornithology. 
Duck Hawk. —lohn Wallace has a fine 
specimen of this bird in Immature Plum¬ 
age, which was shot 2^ miles from Borden- 
town, N. J., Jan. 2, 1882. It is exceeding¬ 
ly dark compared with specimens from the 
Pacific Coast. 
Notes on Men by Two Sun Angels. 
(The following extracts, no matter 
whence, may be of interest, perhaj^s, as 
showing a curious analogy between a 
higher race of beings and oiu’selves, in 
methods of Natural History study.) 
I. 
(from the note-book of SCIENTIA.) 
“ Went down to earth. Secured and 
preserved fifty specimens chiefly from the 
Eiu’opean y'awna. Among them were (1) a 
Homo AJricanus Niger (the ‘common 
Nigger’ of writers) which I was so lucky as 
to secure in France, where it rarely occiu’s ; 
(2) a female Homo Italicus, showing an 
unusually distinct development of down 
upon the upper lip, corresponding to the 
moustaches of the male; and (3) a hand¬ 
some specimen of Homo Chinensis which 
I am satisfied is distinct from H. Japan- 
ensis, measuring five feet ten! and the 
pigtail no less than forty-three inches ! I 
have determined from the complete series 
which I have now formed, having actually 
measured over one hundred specimens, 
that the male Homo Hrittanicm does not 
average over five feet seven and three-quar¬ 
ter inches. I finished to-day mo;inting a 
beautiful female of Homo Caucasius, which 
I represented feeding on the rib of a sheep 
{Ouis Commwiiis). Also collected a fine 
nest of the cottage-type, just built on a 
mountain-side by IF. Helvetiae 7'yrolius, 
and secured the female to identify it.” 
II. 
(from THE NOTE BOOK OF SENTENTIA.) 
“Went down to earth. Saw a Greek, a 
beautiful sj^ecies ; heard a young Italian 
singing most deliciously ; and for some 
time watched a rosy pair of young Irish, 
building their little hovel of green turf. I 
was much amused by the fat Dutch, tod¬ 
dling sociably and placidly along their cu¬ 
rious canals—so altogether different from 
their neighbors, the graceful, dapper, and 
excitable French. In observing some Ameri¬ 
cans in England, I was struck by the 
greater quickness of their movements, and 
their characteristic sharpness of intonation. 
I can always identify them by their notes, 
though Scientia insists that the two varie¬ 
ties {Brittanicus and Yankeus) are so much 
alOie that I ought to make sime of my 
specimens. But to me the interest of man¬ 
kind is in their ways of life. A young 
mother sweetly singing to her child gives 
me a jileasure that not a whole museum¬ 
ful of stuffed and labeled women could af¬ 
ford. If we can get exact knowledge only 
through killing, let us not be too exact!” 
(The above if taken as serious, is non¬ 
sense, but, if taken as nonsense, is serious. 
It is not meant to disparage scientific ac¬ 
curacy, or to ridicule its methods, but sim¬ 
ply to suggest that science or quasi science, 
may, like sentiment, go too far and be too 
exacting. The question to ponder over is : 
how may we best study life ?)—Henry D. 
Minot. 
