THE OSPEEY. 



85 



in this city for some time, until one escaped. 

 Their owner was much elated over a pair of 

 white (Juail. from which he hoped to produce 

 many more, and thereby e.stablis-fi a "corner" on 



white from loss of pig-nient, hut in this case 

 each feather is broadly mar^'-ined with yellowish- 

 white, as shown in the accompanying- illustra- 

 tion. Gambel's (_)uail seems to take kindly to 



ADULT MALE AND FEMALE ARIZONA QUAIL. 



albinos; but live Quail are not joys forever, and 

 our friend is now a .sadder but wi.ser man. I 

 had recently in iny hands for mounting' a Quail 

 whose plumage I can call nothing el.se but a 

 freak. In albinism the entire feather becomes 



confinement, becoming quite tame. I have 

 known of many sets of eggs laid by Quail in 

 captivity, but as yet have heard of no young 

 being reared. 



THE SCOURGE OF EGG COLLECTING. 

 By Rev. W. F. Henninger, Waverly, Ohio. 



The Auk for Januar}-, 1899, page 61, speaks of 

 the "scourge of egg collecting," telling us that 

 "eg'g- collecting has become a fad. which is en- 

 courage and fostered by the dealers until it is 

 one of the most potent cau.ses of the decrease in 

 our birds." The truth of this is proven by re- 

 ferring to a man, numbering in his cabinet 210 

 sets or 917 eg-gs of the Kentucky Warbler, etc. 

 The December number of Thk Ospkky. on pages 

 62, 63, contains an excellent criticism of the 

 "Egg's of Native Pennsylvania Birds: A World's 

 Fair Collection." by F. H. Kinowlton). which, 

 like the Ornithological Sermon in the November 

 number, is one of the best articles on the subject 

 of "egg hogging" that I ever read. The "Orni- 

 thological Sermon" strikes the ^^^ misers, who 

 tell of their great success in robbing ne.sts, in 

 the reading columns or advertisements of The 



OSI'KKV. 



In this short paper, I should like to call the 

 attention of The Osprey's readers to another 

 book containing a vast amount of information 

 in regard to bird murdering, a book which, 

 though it has decided merits, shows us the 

 "scourg'e of egg collecting" under the guise of 

 science. This is Oliver Davie's Nests and 

 Eggs of North American Birds, now in its fifth 



edition. It seems bold, especially for one who 

 is not an "authority," to criticise this book, 

 which has been extolled to the skies by so many 

 ornithologists; but I believe there is plenty of 

 room for critici.sm. The number of cases of 

 "^^^ hogging" or bird murdering given in this 

 book is abominable. Let us briefly refer to a 

 few of these ca.ses. We hear in this book .so 

 often of the extensive oological collection of Mr. 

 C. W. Crandall. of Woodside, New York. Very 

 well! Page 8 tells us of 12 out of 46 sets of eggs 

 of Gavia arctica in Crandall's collection. Page 

 13 speaks of a series of 94 egg's of Ptychorham- 

 phus alciiiicus (which are all white, shaded with 

 emerald green). Page 19.T talks of 19 sets or 38 

 eggs of Cat/iarh's aura; page 196, of 48 eggs of 

 Cafharista uruhu taken between February 28 

 and June 5; pag'e 204. of 38 eggs of Accipiter 

 velox: page 217, of 60 eg'gs of the Golden Eagle; 

 page 221, of 41 eggs of the Gyrfalcon; page 283, 

 of 56 sets of 112 eggs of the Chuck-will's-widow; 

 page 286, of 72 eggs of Merrill's Parauque; page 

 287, of 38 sets of the Florida Nighthawk— and so 

 on, ad imiiseaiii. On other pages we hear especial- 

 ly of a certain Mr. Morris" having piles of eggs 

 like those of Mr. Crandall (cf. page 209, 61 eggs 

 of Bittco liriiraliis). Then we hear of 50 eggs of 



