120 



TH£ OdLOOlftT 



6, "If a bird's nest chance to be in 

 tne way in any tree, or on the ground, 

 whether they be young ones or eggs, 

 ann the dam sitting upon the young 

 or upon the eggs, thou slialt not take 

 (he dam with the young (or eggs)." 



7, "But thou Shalt in anywise let 

 the dam go, and taiie the young (or 

 eggs) to thee; that it may be well 

 with thee, and that thou may pro- 

 long thy days." 



Man was given "Dominion over the 

 fowls of the air" for his benefit, but 

 the law;-, of Nature were set in mo- 

 tion first, the Scriptural passage, 

 above, being merely a citation of that 

 law, which, in itself, is a statement 

 or declaration of the unalterable law 

 of reproduction. 



The foregoing lines have been as- 

 sembled because of the possible de- 

 struction of certain flocks of I^ower 

 California quail at the present time; 

 but now let us consider the phan- 

 tom shadows of the millions of Chim- 

 ney Swift;, of which we are thinking, 

 and can see the long, imaginary line 

 passing over and beyond the horizon! 



I have this clipping from the "So- 

 ciety Column" of the Richmond, Va., 

 "Dispatch" of May 21st, 1902: 



"The Waynesboro Hunt Club had 

 a novel shooting match on Monday 

 evening of this week. The club has 

 been holding shooting matches for 

 several weeks, using the ordinary 

 pigeons for targets. 



"On Sunday evening the observant 

 captain of the Waynesboro Club, 

 Captain William McCray, who be- 

 longs to our Best Society (God save 

 the Captain)* and who is ever on 

 the alert to take advantage of any 

 new scheme in the sporting line, 

 noticed about two bushels of chimney 

 swallows taking refuge in a neigh- 

 bors' chimney, whereupon he sum- 

 moned James Craig, and together 

 they concocted a plan by which to 

 take captive the unsuspecting deni- 

 zens of the air. By means of a large 

 sack spread over the top of the chim- 

 ney, and the application of dense 

 smoke at the bottom, about 400 swal- 

 lows were incarcerated. 



"The originators of the plan were 



so jubilant over their catch that they 

 communicated the news to several 

 members of the Staunton Gun Club, 

 whom they invited, and Mr. William 

 McDaniel, S. P. Davis and John Fox- 

 hall joined them Monday afternoon in 

 a shooting match. The birds were 

 liberated from a trap one at a time, 

 and the sportsmen (?)* declared 

 they have never before undergone 

 such a test of marksmanship as they 

 were put to by the frightened swal- 

 lows. 



"Quite a number of spectators were 

 present, including a number of 

 ladies (?)* and neither the attraction 

 of the polo game, going on at the 

 time, nor the impending storm, could 

 drive them from the scene of excite- 

 ment (Sort of intoxicating degener- 

 acy).* 



"The match lasted several hours, 

 pnd William McDaniel of Staunton, 

 took the lead, killing thirteen out 

 of twenty-four birds, followed by Dr. 

 T. S. Richardson, who killed twelve 

 o; t of twenty-four. 



"A notable feature of the case is 

 that the swallows that were so for- 

 tunate as to escape made direct for 

 the shelter of the chimney from 

 v/hich they had been captured." 



(The correspondent does not say 

 that this brutal practice was a^ain 

 repeated, but no doubt, if the "Best 

 Society" and influential citizens of 

 Waynesboro so willed it to please 

 the ladies, etc., there was another 

 spasm of degenerate sport thrust up- 

 on civilization!)* 



*ParenthQtic marks and remarks 

 mine. 



Now, My dear Magoon, you and I 

 have some Chimney Swifts' eggs in 

 our collections; but in collecting 

 these, we observed the law of repro- 

 duction cited in the Scriptural pas- 

 sage, previously noted. The Chimney 

 Swift rears but one brood a year, and 

 all the birds we robbed, did this im- 

 mediately after being deprived of 

 their first eggs which were secured 

 for science. 



I find, in my collection, ten sets, 

 totaling forty-two eggs of this bird, 

 the collection of which covers a per- 

 iod of forty years; and during that 



