The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-04-01
NESTS AND BIRDS.
THE TRIUMPH OF AN oRNlTHoLoe
icAL OHIO FAMILY.
How the Work "Nests and Birds Of
Ohio" Was Brought Out-Reproduc-
tions of the Exact Shades
OF Nature.
TaGath'' in Cincinnati Enouirer,

While describing individuals of mark l
have encountered in the state, perhaps the
most pleasant instance was that of an ornj.
biological family at Circleville There re-
sides a physician, Mr.. Jones, who forty OF
more years ago studied medicine in .Cleve
land, and married there Miss Smith, whose
parents came from Massachusetts,. They
had two children, one of whom is still liy-
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 vera
were riding in the vicinity of Circleville,
and they came to birds nest with eggs
in it.
what kind Of nest is. thisg said the
sister.
ii don't know" said the brother.
you don't know what kind OF nest this
is--what kind of bird's-eggs these ares"
asked the sister. u 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 another?'
"No; there is no such book in the United
States. There are books on birds, but not ON
bird's-nests."
"Well," said she, q think if were man
l would make a book to tell about such
things"
Not long after the brother remarked; "If
you will draw those nests and eggs will go
and hunt them"
be 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, gem
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 markell 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 ac-
curately measured, and in course of time
propositions were made to have them pub.
lished. 1t was found that to engrave them
| Oh stone would take considerable amount
of money 1t then occurred to the young
| 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 a
friend, to make these photographic drawings,
and they had the letter-press made in Gin
| cinnati, and the book appears in numbers,
| with some thirty or forty subscribers who
| paid tho small sum, for work Of that labor,
| Of about Sll9 apiece. The work was to lie
finished in about forty parts After the first
number had appeared the young lady diod
| of typh lid fever. 1t left the work in q state
! of chaos, but her mother, grieying 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 ani-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 6
work of art as well as a work of alb
solute accuracy. In some cases there ara l0l
twigs in each nest, and every twig has beer
copied literally in all Its proportions, meas
ured with the dividers. They have been pu
upon the finest English artists paper in the
very best British water colorS, and you car
imagine the extraordinary amount Of Thu
labor when you multiply the number o
copies of the work by the number of plates
if there are two pictures In each nufhbel
there would be forty times eighty pictures
am not sure whether each number contain
one or two plates.
This book, quite equal to Audubon in TIL
department it takes up, had no patrons, no
were any solicited. 1t has now been goins
on some five or six years, and has been
labor of delight as Welt as Of pains. Il
some cases it takes whole week to draw
birds nest with faithful appreciation; tn
| more elaborate nests often require from
day to three days to paint them Not sin
gle touch of color is put in which does no
belong there, and therefore there can be N
haste about the performance. To color tn
plates, and they are all colorei by hand
never takes less than three hours 70
each impression; the lady who ha
done the greater portion Of this work
probably IS years of age. make this gues
/, merely because her husband is a man of 81
Coincident with the labor has been the col
, lection of a very respectable ornithologica
library. The highest class of scientists i
, this country, like Professor Cowes, at Wasl
! ington, have expressed themselves wit
something like ecstasy upon the perfectio
. of that book, and yet while it is going o
, unnoticed and unannouncei in Circlevill
and bearing the imprint of that town upo
! it, some persons there told me that tn
h place and country had never produced an
distinguished or distinguishing men an
women