THE MUSEUM. 



271 



Great-crested Flycatchers ;all the com- 

 mon Thrushes and the Oven-bird; 

 Flycatchers and Vireos on tree and 

 small bush; Titmice or Nuthatches 

 (either or both, we never knew which) 

 in holes of trees — we never got the 

 birds somehow; and all our collections 

 fairly swarmed with small Warblers' 

 eggs which we could never identify. 

 Then came Yellow-hammers, Maryland 

 Yellow-throats, Crows by the hundreds 

 I might almost say — on the tip-top of 

 nearly every pine or oak tree; Wood- 

 cocks and Snipes, Ivildeer and Spotted 

 Sandpiper; Woodcocks; the Great- 

 crested Flycatcher was not rare then 

 as it is now; Whip-poor- wills and Night 

 Hawks were prizes, yet we found them 

 near ist Bakers in those days. I re- 

 collect finding a young Callow Whip- 

 poor-will, and comparing it with a 

 like discovery in Audubon or Wilsons, 

 I forget now which, how it delighted 

 me. Chimney Swallows were plenti- 

 ful to the venturesome youths who 

 dared go up the chimneys with a hoe. 

 And Barn and Eave Swallows by the 

 hundred for the simple climbing. I 

 could have collected 1,000 of each, say 

 inside a week's time, and not gone 

 half a mile from home. Ruby-throat- 

 ed Humming birds in nearly every gar- 

 den. And Belted Kingfishers and Bank 

 Swallows didn't then always need a 

 river's bank to breed in Then the 

 Hawks and Owls that this ist Baker's 

 wood furnished, I will give you a list 

 of what I remember. Great Horned 

 Owl, Screech or Red Owl, (we con- 

 sidered the Red and Gray Owls then 

 the same birds, as we took them out 

 of the same nest, and kept them as 

 pets.) Short Eared Owl, Barred Owl, 

 Sharp shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, 



Sparrow Hawk, Red-tailedHawk, Red- 

 shouldered Hawk. Then came the 

 Partridges. Well, that's about all! 



The 2d and 3d Bakers was simply a 

 magnificently magnified continuation 

 of the 1st Bakers. Sometimes we fol- 

 lowed down to the river, braved Mr. 

 Smith's bullets, which we all stood in 

 mortal fear of, and found besides many 

 of these same species, the Marsh Hawk, 

 the Bittern, the Green Heron, the 

 Black Duck, the Rails — we never knew^ 

 which species they were; rarely a 

 stray Goose's egg — a real one I mean, 

 Canada Goose — was heralded. We 

 used, I believe, to claim the Coot as 

 breeding in marshy places then. They 

 were very common in our rivers and 

 ponds, at any rate. 



What collecting we used to have! 

 It was not necessary to go over a mile 

 from home to find say 50 specimens 

 each perhaps of say two-thirds of the 

 list mentioned. What royal sport we 

 used to have! 



Our collecting outfit was a simple- 

 fish basket full of cotton batting and 

 tin, salt, pepper and spice boxes as 

 well as army cap boxes. They were 

 just big enough to take up the tree 

 and drop down without breaking the 

 eggs inside. As urchins we always had 

 our turns bringing the eggs down in 

 our mouth. When we each system- 

 atically stopped it and took to the box- 

 es. Nobody ever said a word, yet the 

 culmination of this event was always 

 breaking a rotten egg in our mouth and 

 sometimes swallowing its contents. 

 We didn't carry climbers then, and lost 

 many a valuable find. If we couldn't 

 shin the tree, we went round and round 

 it, gazing up until our necks were sore, 

 till somebody would give in licked, and 



