The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-05

constantly show how ignorant ornitholo-
glSts are when 1t comes to birds.
1t has been known for long time that
white horned owl by the name of Bubo
vlrglnlanus arcticus tiourlshes north OF
the Canadian border, and that south of it,
west of the Missouri, other horned owls
live and toot from the plains to the Pacific
Ocean. Years ago big bird man named
Hoy shot horned owl out West, supposed
1t to be the regular horned owl of the West,
called it vlrginianus subarcticus, and ever
since then the specimen, nicely put away in
arsenic in the Smithsonian Institution, has
been the type of authority on Western
horned owls.
IL was Ornithologist Leverett NJ. LOOMS
OF the Academy of Sciences who discovered
this owlish scientific blunder, while on the
Eastern visit from which he has just re-
turned. He had taken two owl skins
along with a lot of other specimens in
tended for comparison and study in the
great Eastern geological museums, and on
investigation concerning owls he found
that the Hoy type was stray Canadian
from the North for one thing and for
another thing that the California horned
owl has white feet, reddish dress and
other differences that make i, distinct
type. As 1t is discoverer's sole province
to bestoW names, he will call the horned
owl OF the Rockies and the plains the Bubo
YlrglnlanuS hoyl, after the man who made
the mistake, but he is still thinking about
what he will call the new owl that he has
given to California.
VI course California is rich in other owls
that the ornithologists have managed to
name correctly. There is the charming
saw-Whet, SO called because its song sug-
getss saw-sharpening in a sawmill; the
California screech, which bellies the rumor
that California birds have no song; the
burrowing owl of the Pacific Coast that
lives with the gophers and chipmunks,
and go on.
Mr.. LOOMS has also named new
species OF shearwater, an ocean bird, that
he discovered during his months of daily
boating ten miles off Monterey, and it will
go into the books as the 'puffinus Gill
bertl, after DR.. Gilbert of Stanford Uni
versity.
The particular occasion of Mr.. LOOMS
trip East was the thirteenth annual con-
gress of the American Ornithological
Union at Washington, at which he read
paper quite paraiyzlng to the bird sciena
lists there. LOOMS has for a great many
years been special authority on bird mi
grafton, and it was the discoveries concern
ing the, peagic birds of the Pacific,
made during his relentless boating
trips far off the shore at Monterey,
that he gave to the science of ornith-
ology. The ocean birds of the Pacific
are but very little known, and from three
to ten miles off the Pacific shore anywhere
are millions of ocean birds never seen on
shore. LOOMS got out among them daily
for months, gathered many specimens
never reported before in this part of the
world, found species never described any,
where and made special study of migra-
tons He discovered and demonstrated
the fact, new to science, that ocean birds,
IN their long mlgrations between the Arc
TIC and the southern regions, are not
guided by instinct, but always keep the
shore line in view, and are guided by it.
Birds that fly high fly farther from shore.
All swing in to follow the bend in the
coast line, and during fogs they fly close to
the surf to be guided by the sound.
During the eighteen months that Pro-
lessor LOOMS has been here he has in
creased the pathological collection of the
Academy of Sciences from 2100 TO 5000
specimens, and is in hurry to make it
10000, though this would be small COM
pared with the three or four great collec-
tions of the East. The Academy of Sci
ences is doing notable work in the almost
unworked field of the birds of the Pacific.