published quarterly, March, June, September, December, as the organ of the Wilson Ornithological Club and the Nebraska Ornithologists Union, is Terms:-$1.00 a year, including postage, strictly in advance. Single num- bers 30 cents. Free to all members not in arrears for dues. The Office of Publication is No. 48 South Main St., Oberlin, Ohio. Sub- scriptions may be addressed to Geo. L. Fordyce, Youngstown, Ohio, Business Manager, or to Frank M. Phelps, 212 East 4th St., Elyria, Ohio, Treasurer. All articles and communications intended for publication and all books and publications for notice, should be sent to Dr. Lynds Jones, Spear Labora- tory, Oberlin, Ohio, in time to reach Oberlin at least four weeks before the date of the number for which they are intended. The Officers of the Wilson Ornithological Club for the year 1917 are: President-Rev. W. F. Henninger, New Bremen, Ohio. Vice-President-George L. Fordyce, Youngstown, Ohio. Secretary-Gerard Alan Abbott, Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich. Treasurer-Frank M. Phelps, 212 East 4th St., Elyria, Ohio. Business Manager-George L. Fordyce, Youngstown, Ohio. Editor Wilson Bulletin-Lynds Jones, Spear Laboratory, Oberlin, Ohio. OLD SERIES VOL. XXIX. NEW SERIES VOL. XXIV. NO. 1 THE DIARY OF A NEW ENGLAND ORNITHOLOGIST AN APPRECIATION. (Read before the Wilson Ornithological Club at Chicago, December 28, 1916.) W. F. HENNINGER. A few years ago a letter came to my desk, asking me whether I would like to consider buying a small collection of birds. Upon my answer that I would have to have the exact data I heard no more until this fall. Then I received the answer that the data were all given and thus the collection passed into my hands together with the book, that was to contain these data. Naturally when unpacking the specimens and checking them off I saw that the collection had but little financial value. A specimen of Pheugopedius maculipectus attracted my attention only because it had belonged to the collection of John Cassin and a specimen of Wilsonia citrina because it originally belonged to Dr. E. A. Mearns. Running over the Warblers in the collection I came across the name on the checklist: "Whitethroated Warbler." Knowing that the Cerulean is sometimes called by that name I looked for this species, but what was my surprise when the specimen found proved to be a Vermivora leucobronchialis of a very early date, July 3, 1875. I then paid close attention to those species of which there seemed to be only one specimen at hand. The very next one was a Cerulean and then a Kentucky Warbler, both from the New England States. To my memory came a short note in the Auk, the Bird Journal of the Atlantic Coast, written about nine years ago and when I turned to the page I saw what had fallen into my hands. Consequently I turned to the book which had accompanied the skins and there found accurately recorded the ornithological life history of a man, who furnished many other men in the New England States in the past with splendid records of New England birds, and whose records are worthy to be retold or revealed. The collection, or what was left of it-302 skins thus proved to be of considerable historical value and it gives me great pleasure to show the most interesting ones of them to the members of the Wilson Club today, as I read to them from the records of the past, from the diary of Dr. Erwin I. Shores, the Ornithologist of Suffield, Connecticut. The diary begins with statements of his childhood days back in 1862 and relates struggles with parental objections to the use of a gun, when he was only eight years old, the wrestling with questions of identification of birds, all things with which the most of us are familiar from our own reminiscences. Tenney's Manual, and in 1871, when the family lived in Haverhill, Mass., Johnson's Natural History, as also Maynard's Naturalist's Guide served him as his ornithological literature. There at Haverhill he also learned the art of taxidermy. Two good records from this time are still preserved in the diary, viz, the shooting of a Black-backed three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) in October, 1871, at Bradford, along the river, but he says of this specimen: "it was so lousy, that I only kept his head and wing." In November of the same year a friend gave him a pair of little Auks (Alle alle) which were shot on Kenoza lake, which he mounted and still had at a very late date. In August, 1872, the family moved to Suffield, Conn., and in September of the same year he entered Brown University and there became acquainted with Professor J. W. P. Jenks. Through him he became still more interested in birds and received permission from his parents to accompany the Professor on a winter trip to Florida. The trip I wish to give in his own words. He writes as follows: "Our party consisted of Professor Jenks, Fred Jenks and myself. On the way to our real starting point Fred and I shot several birds, but kept very few. Saw a few gulls and ducks on the way to Savannah, but lost them. Saw plenty of ducks after we passed Cape Hatteras. Our next shooting was at Sand Point on the Indian river. There we got several birds. Among them I remember a mockingbird that Fred got and a Fish Hawk and a Broad-winged Hawk that I got. At Sebastian Creek I got a Pigeon Hawk and eighteen other birds and Fred got a pair of Carolina Doves and twenty birds. On the way down Indian River we had shot at a number of birds. At Ft. Capron we met Mr. Ober and Mr. Van Buskirck and they went with us to the interior. While at Ft. Capron went gunning several times and shot a bag full each time, but turned nearly all over to Professor Jenks, keeping for myself only the following, all of which were obtained along the river's bank North of Ft. Capron, but within five miles of it. This list is as follows: Ft. Capron, Florida, February 11, 1874. 1. Bahama Honey Creeper (Coereba bahamensis) ♂.-(Aside of this record are written the sad words, "lost in mail 1878." Sad, I say, because I want the Club to remember that this is by far the northermost record of this species in the United States, all others being from the Florida Keys, principally Indian Key. This record must be all of 200 miles farther north and thus the credit for the northermost record of this species must go to this youthful ornithologist, then 19 years of age, Dr. Shores.) 2. Cardinal Redbird, one ♂. February 12. 3. Yellow-throated Gray Warbler (Dendroica dominica) J. 4. Nonpareil (Passerina ciris) q. 5. Stone Snipe (Totanus melanoleucus) ♂. 6. Bonaparte's Gull (Larus philadelphicus) ♂. 7. Royal Tern (Sterna maxima) ♂. (Numbers 3, 4 and 5 are now in my collection.-W. F. H.). My first shot at Ft. Capron killed a Fish Crow and a Turkey Buzzard. From that place we started for Okeechobee and breaking down on the way we left Professor and Fred behind. Killdeers, Meadowlarks, Quail, Deer, Raccoons, Fox Sq., Wild Turkeys, a Wildcat, Alligators and Snakes were common all the way to the Kissimee River. Besides these I killed numerous smaller birds, but had no time to skin them. At Cowboy camp, on February 19th, I killed a pair of Ivorybilled Woodpeckers in the morning, but had no time to skin them then, as the camp was moved that day, so put them in the boat and at night when we reached camp they were spoiled. At Ft. Bassanger there were plenty of birds and game and though I shot much it went into our stomachs and I preserved no skins. On the way down the river Snake birds, Herons, Gallinules were abundant, but nearly all I shot were "gators." On the island in Okeechobee there were thousands of nests of Herons and a few of Roseate Spoonbills. When we came the Herons left and the crows came and destroyed their eggs. In the lake I was taken with fever and ague." On the rest of the trip he could not do much, mentioning only, that he again meets Professor Jenks and Fred, to whom he turned over the box of eggs he had collected, and that at a Pelican rookery at the Sebastian River he killed six Brown Pelicans with one shot, but could only keep their plumes as he was too sick to prepare any specimens. The effects of this trip made itself felt in two ways. First it kept him in poor health for some time, secondly he became determined to have a collection. of his own and started out to do so most vigorously. Several articles from his pen appeared in later years in regard to the camp life in Florida and some of his experiences there, but that was all he ever wrote about it and he never published anything over his own name in ornithological literature. The records from 1874 in his diary's shooting list up to 1880 in the fall are very complete except the last few years when he went to school, most likely some medical college. In the fall of 1880 he moved to West Bridgewater in eastern Massachusetts. There he lived till the summer of 1885, moving to Hampton, Virginia. The entries in the diary at the last named place are of no peculiar or particular value except in one instance to be mentioned later on. His life's work as an Orni |