ve glad to follow out,minutely,any wish or wishes of yours concerning 
preparation of eggs,nests,data,-or anything else that will serve to Tre 
make the eggs more interesting and valuable to you.T realize, Pus by. 
that there are many things connected,directly or incidentally,with the 
preparation of cabinet specimens for which money cannot pay,and it 
is in just these directions that I shall be most glad to serve YiOules 
will prefix to the list certain details of collection and preparation 
that will enter in as a part of the price set against the specimens 
that T hope to take for you. T may take @ trip to 
Shoal Lake,Man.,in the interests of photography ,-chrefly,-and,insid- 
entally,to take,personally,sets of Pelican and Cormorant( Bicrist. )If 
T should do éHisi4 shall probably.try to put in action,tnere,on your ® 
pehalf,a plan T have long cherished for taking large perishable nests& 
Even if you did not care to preserve what I might thus take for you, t® 
the material would be rich for examination,study and illustration. 
Should T,ere that time,have secured my coveted camera,I shall hope to 
secure some things otf unusual interest. : 
I am wondering how some of you,-critical students of ornithology,-feel 
as to some of theé fiats that have gone forth as touching the Check- 
list. I confess to a feeling of supreme bewilderment,as touching some 
points that T had fondly supposed were settled,for all time. In ornith- 
ology,as a science,it seems to be the unexpectéd that always happens, 
while the tyro finae; continually th all his fondly vaunted new-found 
knowledge,only confusion worse confounded. Sure Some things 
that have. been re Reigead decided upon are,I confs ,quite diftficul 
for me to understan egratia,-how is it that ib races of Fly- 
catchers ,-widely ceaukeles as to habitat, and stbee considered as sub- 
specifically distinect,should be merged iouuanent in part,-the eastern 
race of the one being merged in the same category with the northern 
race that was not differentiated until one year ago.Indeed,to tell 
the truth,T do not yet exactly understand just how these races,-Traill 
i,and E.T.alnorum,-are,hereafter,to stand.Away out here on the north- 
western border,the few of “that éouha Ace ie stand for exact ornith- 
ology are,-ss Caesar would have said,-"Far removed from the human- 
izing and civilizing influences of she sid aa 
I wrote you once regarding our local race of Melospiaa. Later,in .sena- 
a parcel of birds,under frank,for toe tt shing of their sub- 
ific identity,-in the making up of my SPeport 1 Was surprised to 
a specimen of our large, Sine ede uate d Parus come back ilabél- 
,"atricapillus}-and to have the Song sparrow sent come back with 

