150 
ORNITIIOU HilST 
() R N IT IIO L () G I S T 
—AND— 
00 LOG I ST. 
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO 
THE STUDY OP BIRDS, THEIR NESTS AND EGOS. 
JOS. M. WADE, EDITOR, 
With the co-opcration of able Ornithological 
Writers and Collectors. 
SuB-HCRiPTioN—$1.00 per annum. Foreign mbecrip- 
tion $1.25— including jMMtage,. Specimen 
Copies Ten Cents. 
JOS. M. WADE, Norwich, Conn. 
EDITOR IA L. 
L.\te Notes. —Prof. Ward, of Rochester, 
has purchased the collection of 748 bird 
skins owned by J. J. Audubon at the time 
of his death. Southwick & Jencks have 
made ^reat efiorts to replenish their stock 
for the coming- season—both members of 
the firm having made long excursions for 
the purjiose,—1,400 eggs were expected in 
one day. Dr. AVm. Wood sent to Jno. H. 
Sage a Bald Eagle that had been feeding 
on putrid fish—an excellent present when 
the thermometer was trying to reach 100 
and nearly succeeded. 
Savannah Sparrow {Ra.<iserciihis sanrl- 
icichensis Savannn, B7As\) Rithpe. We 
jiresume it is the long name that drives 
this modest little Sparrow away from civil¬ 
ization doiNTi to the sea shore and adjacent 
islands where it breeds. We had never 
seen to recognize this bird until the pres¬ 
ent Summer, when, with a friend, we vis¬ 
ited Plum Island, on the eastern end of 
L. I. While tr.unping over the ground a 
female Sparrow was flushed from the nest, 
which was supposed to be a Song Sparrow, 
but the nest was lined entirely with grass. 
This raised our suspicion at once. Wlien 
the field glass was brought to bear on the 
bird, which was not a .Song Sparrow, 
but more striped, and the stripes more 
jirominent and the actions of the bird was 
different. It ke])t on or near the ground 
on very low bnslies. Its song was 
feeble and not that of the .Song SjiaiTow 
[Vol. 7-No. 20 
The eggs, too. which were fresh, were dif¬ 
ferent, being more rounded and the browui 
blotches longer. The ground color was 
lighter and not so much on the greenish 
blue order as the Song Sparrow. After 
identifying this bird we saw many pairs of 
them breeding on the Island and found 
another nest, which was in an almost bare 
pasture in a very slim tuft of grass. This 
bird remained on the nest, so that we 
could get very close to her and study her 
markings as much as we cared for. The 
first nest was also on the ground in the 
long, thin, coarse gr.iss, incident to a 
sandy plain. 
Brief Newsy Notes. 
Botany and Ornithology are kindred 
sciences and to give the best results should 
be studied together. AVhat a world of 
pleasure the tnie lover of nature derives 
from these two sciences. 
A Text.— “ A bird shot with the glass 
is forever alive and fixed in the mind, and 
many little ways and habits have been 
noted, which would have been entirely lost 
if shot in the usual manner.”— G. R. O. 
Late Nesting.— We h ive in our posses 
sion a .Song Sparrow’s nest and eggs which 
we took at Occum, Conn., Aug. 20, 1881. 
The eggs were cpiite fresh. We should be 
pleased to hear from collectors with the 
latest records of the present season. 
Botany is the background to ornithol- 
ogv. Where is the author that will give 
us a series of articles entitled “ The Bot¬ 
any OF Birds' Nests.” When this is thor¬ 
oughly done it will probably give us a key 
to positive idendity from the nest alc.ne 
without destroying the bird. One of the 
strangest things in nature is that a nest 
of young birds will wing their way to the 
South and return to the jilace of tlieir 
liirth and build a nest of the same mate¬ 
rials. the same shape and location their 
jiarents did before. In this lies a life 
work for some diseijile of Oilbert hite 
to work out. 
