May, 1882.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



117 



Thus passed from this life on the 11th 

 day of February, 1882, one more useful 

 member of our fraternity, whose exceeding 

 kindness to all, whose scrupulous honesty, 

 and trusting confidence in the integrity of 

 his fellow men, closely approximated a fault. 



Mr. Fowler was interred at the Fort 

 HUl cemetery at Aubiu'n, N. Y., on the 19th 



day of Feb., 1882.— J^. S. W. <& S. F. R. 



^ 



Hints to Collectors. 



Why do you collect eggs ? Do you live 

 in the heart of one of o\ir great cities, 

 with few chances afield, and collect through 

 the mails by purchase and exchange ? Do 

 you heap eggs together as curiosities or 

 ornaments to show to friends, or to equal 

 or eclipse the collections of A and B ? If 

 you are influenced by these motives, or sit- 

 uated as above indicated, stop where you 

 are ! Trouble the birds no longer and 

 turn your attention to bric-a-brac. You 

 are on a lower plane than the crows, 

 grackles and jays who destroy eggs through 

 inherited instinct and appetite. But if you 

 take the field yourself, in search of ruddy 

 health, with a passionate love for your 

 pursuit, 'vAW\ no love of notoriety, and wth 

 out ever a thought of rivalry, then we may 

 not condemn you. Furthermore, if you 

 hope by comparison of sets and by obser- 

 vations on obscure breeding habits to ad<l 

 a few grains of information to our humble 

 science, go on, yours is no unholy work. 



Not dismayed by the portents of De 

 Voe or Vennor, the collector of eggs relies 

 on an almanac of his own. In this chron 

 ology the breeding of our local Rapacife 

 is thus forecast : From Fell. 17 to IMarch 

 20, Great Horned Owl : March 17 to April 

 10, Barred Owl ; March 28 to AprU 20, Red- 

 tailed Hawk: April .3 to May 10, Red- 

 shouldered Hawk; April 15, Mottled Owl : 

 April 20 to May 1.5, Broad-winged Hawk : 

 May 10 to .June 15, Marsh, Sharp-shinned 

 and Fish Hawks To show how near we 

 may come to fixing an exact date for the 

 breeding of certain S])ecies, let me pfive the 



record of my sets of Barred Owl for five 

 successive seasons : 1877, March 29 ; 

 1878, March 29; 1879, March 29; 1880, 

 March 27 ; 1881, April 1. 



Common enough and of no value to ex- 

 change, we leave many sets of Blue Jay's 

 eggs in the field. Take them all in, brother 

 collectors. A series of Jay's eggs shows 

 surprising contrasts, and admits of 

 some pleasing changes, and from twenty 

 sets it would be hard to pick the tyjiical 

 one. Every year I leave untouched many 

 crow's nests for the appreciable service ren- 

 dered the farmer by this species. But we 

 may thank the noisy crowd of jays for 

 nothing ! Will some closer observer, with 

 no animus against him, tell me any good 

 of the Blue Jay, and name any noxious in- 

 sect with which he varies his diet of eggs 

 and nuts ? For two seasons he has de- 

 stroyed some of my clutches of Blue Y^el- 

 low-backed Warblers, besides less rare sets. 

 I here indict him as a scold and nuisance. 



The Red Squirrel is another inveterate 

 destroyer of bird's eggs, against whom we 

 must make common cause. Before the 

 new leaves hide their movements, I often 

 see them going into the bird-boxes, and 

 Bluebird and Woodpecker holes in the 

 great elms on Broadway, on the >/«» vive 

 for eggs, and it is well thus early to sound 

 the note of alarm. Here again I have a 

 personal axe to grind in the loss through 

 him last season of clutches of Yellow- 

 throated Vireo and Great-crested Fly- 

 catcher. Shoot him on sight, my friends. 

 The other fur bearing animals which are 

 enemies to breeding birds, such as the 

 skunk, 'coon, mink, fox, grey-squirrel, etc., 

 are diligently hunted for their pelts. But 

 the mischievous chicaree with his useless 

 red jacket and morsel of flesh is consid- 

 ered beneath the notice of himters and 

 trappers. From many visits to nests of 

 unfledged hawks I find that our Buteos 

 render us inestimable service in keeping 

 down the number of these rodents. 



The last week in February. Purple 



