86 



THE OSPREY. 



the Guadalupe Petrel, collected in two days; of 

 thousands of Pelican's eg-g-s; of 500 Coot's egg's 

 in California; of hundreds of Osprey's eggs 

 taken on Shelter Island — all in the interests of 

 science, to be sure ! 



I ask with Mr. F. H. K(nowlton): "What 

 possible advance can there be to science for a 

 single private student to possess 112 eggs of the 

 Chuck-will's-widow, or 61 eggs of the Red-shoul- 

 dered Hawk?" It may be said that these men 

 purchased a majority of these eggs. That mat- 

 ters little! By buying from collectors they en- 

 courag-e the wholesale destruction of bird life. 

 But more than that: The cruelty recorded in 

 the above-mentioned work (page 277), of forcing 

 a poor Flicker to lay 71 eggs in 73 days in the 

 interest of science, is so outrageous that words 

 fail to describe it. And last but not least, the 

 author must be placed in the same category as 

 the other men. In the Part II of his work he 

 mentions the fact "that animal life miisl be pro- 

 tected by the naturalist, for if it is exterminated, 

 where has his delightful study gone? The nat- 

 uralist cannot afford to kill the goose which 

 lays the golden egg!" She may lay another. 

 It would seem that Mr. Davie would act in ac- 

 cordance with his words, but I am afraid that he 

 is doing his share to kill the goose that lays the 

 golden egg! For example, on page 3o2 of his 

 book he says: "In the month of August and 

 during the first two weeks of September, 1S88, 

 Mr. Rudolph, A. L. Baker and mj'self collected 

 29 nests with eggs of the Goldfinch" — a total of 

 145 eggs. All in the interest of science! Poor 

 little Goldfinches ! 



A man who can do such collecting- is unworthy 



of the name of a naturalist. Science does not 

 care for men who tell us in one minute to protect 

 the birds and in the next how many nests they 

 rob themselves. It sounds ridiculous to hear 

 such men censure plume-hunters and then do 

 the same thing, mutatis nnitoin/is. Science 

 mourns over such deeds and such men as Cran- 

 dall, Norris, Davie, and others. They and 

 science have nothing in common. These men, 

 doubtless, care little what I, an unknown per.son, 

 may write about them; but after studying- orni- 

 tliology for 4 years in Germany and (> years in 

 this country, let me say that I have never .seen 

 another book in which so much "egg hogging" 

 and egg robbing- is compiled and told with so 

 much joy and so little shame as in Oliver Davie's 

 Nest and Eggs of North America Birds. The 

 heart of any true scientist is filled with disgust 

 and shame that the word "science" is abused by 

 such people. And I do hope that the readers of 

 ThK C^Si'KEV will not only refuse to aid such 

 men, but will also pledge themselves with a 

 sacred vow never to commit similar deeds. 

 Otherwi.se, all our Audubon Societies, rigid 

 State laws. Committees on Bird Protection, etc., 

 are not worth the paper on which their proceed- 

 ings are written, if we all do not help practically 

 as much as we can to do away with the "scourge 



[We admire Mr. Henninger's viROrous vocalmlary. 

 thout^h we miss any words of lovint^ kiuduess and charity 

 for au erring brother. He is peifectly risht from his own 

 standpoint, in imitating Christ to the extent of bringing 

 not peace, but the sword. Mr. Davie has written our liest 

 all-round egg-booli, and is perfectly right from his own 

 standpoint. Our columns are open to his defense from 

 this attack.— EDS.] 



A NEST OF THE BLUE-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. 

 By George F. Breningek, Phoenix, Ariz. 



THE Blue-throated Hummingbird {Cixligoia 

 clemcncia-) has been known as a bird of 

 the United Slates for a few years, but 

 very little has been learned of its nesting The 

 late Maj. Bendire mentions in his 'Life Histories' 

 the taking of a single egg by Mr. E. W. Nelson. 

 This egg, now in the United States National 

 Museum, was taken in the State of Mexico. 



Early in June, 1897, I had the pleasure of tak- 

 ing the only nest and set of eggs of this species, 

 so far as known in the United States. These 

 were found in the Huachuca mountains and 

 probably less than ten miles from the border. 

 Ramsey's canyon, in which this nest was found, 

 is fourteen miles south of Fort Huachuca. 

 Three tniles up, the canyon narrows to merely 

 a seam between two blac'K walls, and is known 

 locally as "the box". A massive wall of gr.anite, 

 600 feet in height, stretches across the canyon at 

 a right angle. The action of water for ages 

 has worn through it a gorge which in many 

 places is but six or eight feet wide — into which 

 dark and gloomy crevice the sun never shines. 

 On that pleasant June morning, I stepped 

 from stone to stone, admiring: each bunch of 



ferns as more beautiful than the last, each 

 bright red snapdrag^on so brilliant in its bed of 

 g-reen moss. An anxious Black Phoebe had a 

 nest in which were four young, under an over- 

 hanging rock ; this and some White-throated 

 Swifts darting far above me, were the only 

 forms of bird life visible. Presently I imagined 

 I heard the indistinct whir of a Hummer's wing; 

 yet .so faintly that the possibility of a Hum- 

 ining-bird in so g-l,jomy a place soim pa.ssed f rom 

 my mind. Just a little way ahead I noticed one 

 of the prettiest masses of maiden-hair fern that 

 I had seen since leaving the Pacific coast. In 

 its midst, fastened to the longest fronds, was 

 the nest of a Hummingbird, and in this were 

 two eggs as larg-e as a Sparrow's. The mother 

 bird was nowhere to be seen. After exhausting 

 mv patience in waiting I went on, and at the 

 end of the gorge found the female perched on 

 the limb of a dead spruce. The bird secured, I 

 returned, carefully removed the eggs, and then 

 the nest, -with a good portion of the ferns. The 

 nest, like those of all Hummingbirds, is a 

 marvel of beauty, made up of mosses of 

 several colors, oak catkins and spider webs. 



