Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-03-08
NESTS AND BIRDS.
THE TRIUMPH or AN ORNITHOloG-
ICAL OHIO FAMILY.
How the Work Nests and Birds Of
Ohio" Was Brought Out-Reproduc-
tions of the Exact Shades
Of Nature.
l"gath" in Cincinnati Enopirsrl i

l'Glth' in Cincinnati EnquirerI
| While describing individuals Of mark /
! have encountered in the state, perhaps the
| most pleasant instance was that of an orni-
! biological family at Circleville. There re.
| sides u physician, Mr. Jones, who forty or
| more years ago studied medicine in Cleve-
| land, ami married there a Miss Smith, whose
| parents came from Massachusett It's. They
had two children, one Of whom is still liv-
I ing, and is his fathers associate in practice
| and a lecturer on physiology before the med
! ical college at Columbus-Dr Howard Jones
| Several years ago brother and sister were
were riding i'll the vicinity of Circleville,
and they came to birds nest with eggs
in it,
"What kind Of a nest is thisl" said the
sister.
81 don't know" said the brother
"You don't know what kind of nest this
is-what kind of bird's-eggs these arei"
asked the sister. Il should think you would
find out from book"
There is no such book" said the brother.
"You really tell me that there is no book
| on bird's-nests and bird's-eggs, by which you
can tell one nest from anotherP
NO; there is no such book in the United
States. There are books ON birds, but not on
| birI's-nests"
We'll, said she Il think if were man
/ would make book to tell about such
things"
Not long after the brother remarked: "1f
you will draw those nests and eggs will 60
and hunt them"
He was an earnest hunter in the Scioto
bottoms, as well as a good fisherman. The
sister said she would like to undertake that
work. So the young doctor began system
matically to study the species Of Ohio birds,
and he carefully procured these nests gen.
orally bringing them in with the bush or
bark or ground, or even the earth stuffed
around them where they were found, and
he also brought the eggs in all their
varieties from the largest size, and those
most distinctly market with spots or
colors down to the smallest eggs and the
palest ones. These nests, exactly as they
were made with whatever the birds used,
whether hair or wool or twigs or degluted
pieces of bark, were then drawn, being &C.
curately measured, and in course of time
propositions were made to have them pub.
hshed. 1t was found that to engrave them
on stone would take considerable amount
of money. IL then occurred to the young
man that he could buy the photographic
stones and have them drawn on the stone
He himself is fair artist, and has painted
in very perfect color and style the
wild ducks of the Scioto, with land
scape surroundings, quite as clever, it
seems to me, as any thing in Audubon.
The sister commenced. with the help of
friend, to make these photographic dra wings,
and they had the letter-preSs made in Gin.
cinnati, and the book appears in numbers,
with some thirty OF forty subscribers, who
paid the small sum- for a work Of that labor,
of about Sll9 apiece. The work was to be
finished IN about forty parts. After the first
number had appeared the young lady died
of typh id fever. Ii left the work in u state
of chaos, but her mother, grieving for her
loss and wondering where to turn her mind,
concluded to continue the task.
The consequence has been the publication
of nearly all these numbers. They make a
splendid book of the largest size; the sheets
are foot aud-a- half to two feet square, and
Mrs. Jones' with some lady associates has
drawn these nests upon the stone and after
they have been printed has colored them by
hand, making the most beautiful reproduc-
tions of the exact tones and shades OF nature
which can be seen In that style Of
art in the world. Every picture is q
work of art as well as a work Of alb
sUlute accuracy. In some cases there are 100
twigs in each nest, and every twig has been
copied literally in all Its proportions meas
ured with tue dividerS They have been put
upon the finest English artists paper in the
very best British water colorS, and. you can
imagine the extraordinary amount OF this
labor when you multiply the number Of
copies of the work by the number of plates;
If there are two pictures in each number
there would be forty times eighty pictures
/ am not sure whether each number contains
one or two plates.
This book, quite equal to Audubon in the
department it takes up, had no patrons, nor
were any solicited. 1t has now been going
on some five or six years, and has been a
labor Of delight as well as of pains. In
some cases it takes whole week to draw q
birds nest with faithful appreciation; the
more elaborate nests often require from a
day to three days to paint them. Not sim
gle touch Of color Is put in which does not
belong there. and therefore there can be no
haste about the performance. To color the
plates, and they are all colore1 by hand,
never takes less than three hours for
each impression; the lady who has
done the greater portion of this work is
probably 50 years of age. l make this guess
merely because her husband is a man Of 81
Coincident with the labor has been the col
lection of & very respectable pathological
library The highest class of scientists in
this country, like Professor Cowes, at Wash
ington, have expressed themselves with
something like ecstasy upon the perfection
of that book, and yet while it is going on
unnoticed and unannounced in Circleville
and bearing the imprint of that town upon
it, some persons there told me that the
place and country had never produced any
distinguished or distinguishing men and
women