THE OOLOQI8T 



38 



uation but as other birds whose eggs 

 are worth more sometimes use desert- 

 ed Flicker holes it frequently becomes 

 desirable to get at the contents of 

 ■such a nest. If you take your little 

 pocket axe and chop through the back 

 of the limb, opposite where the nest 

 hole is, you can generally get the eggs 

 without much trouble although this 

 method spoils the cavity so that it 

 will seldom be used again. I have 

 seen nice sets of* Sparrow Hawk's 

 eggs procured in this way in situations 

 where almost any other method would 

 have resulted not only in broken eggs 

 but in broken bones also. 



Always try to remember every nest 

 hole found in cavities of trees, and 

 every nest of any .Hawk or Owl found 

 anywhere, and visit them from year 

 to year for many such nests will be 

 repaired and used again and again. 



Whenever you find a nest which 

 you consider rare study the details of 

 the locality where you find it, and then 

 when you happen across another sec- 

 tion of country where the surround- 

 ings are almost identical you may be 

 lucky enough to find the same species 

 breeding there also. The faculty of 

 being able to glance over a country 

 and determine from its topograpliy 

 what birds are liable to nest in it is a 

 big factor in collecting. 



A word about guns for collecting 

 may not be out place for most of those 

 advertised especially for this purpose 

 are too small to be of real service. It 

 is generally useless to try to tell a 

 man what kind of a gun he needs, for 

 his own ideas usually decide that 

 point, but 1 will say that for the last 

 twenty-five years some kind of a gun 

 for collecting has been a necessary 

 part of my outfit during most of my 

 leisure time, and I have seen and used 

 quite a number of different kinds, 

 ranging in size from a twenty-two cali- 



ber loaded with a few pellets of very 

 fine shot, to an eight-gauge which 

 gave good results when loaded with 

 two ounces of coarse shot, and al- 

 though I have seen times when each 

 of the various sizes and styles of fire- 

 arms were very useful I have found 

 that for general collecting pur- 

 poses nothing else can compare with 

 a double-barrelled hammerless twelve- 

 gauge shot-gun of medium weight and 

 of any good standard make. Ammu- 

 nition for this size can be obtained in 

 many a small store where no other 

 size will be found, which is one thing 

 in its favor if you do much collecting 

 at a distance from home. You can 

 buy shells ready loaded which are 

 suitable for all the various sizes of 

 birds, from a snipe to a swan, and 

 about the only special provision to be 

 made is for shooting very small birds. 

 For this purpose it is best to get a 

 box of unloaded paper shells from the 

 dealer and some powder, shot and 

 wadding, and then load some shells 

 with a very small charge, using num- 

 ber twelve or dust shot. By shooting 

 at a piece of paper you can easily see 

 what kind of a pattern the various 

 loads make and get a good idea how 

 much ammunition you need to kill a 

 small bird at close range without un- 

 necessary mutilation. In order to get 

 the best results from these light loads 

 the ends of the shells should be 

 crimped over in regulation style to 

 prevent the charge from jarring loose 

 in your pocket Most sporting goods 

 dealers sell at a very slight cost a 

 hand tool plenty good enough for this 

 purpose, which will crimp the ends 

 over very wejl even when the shells 

 are only partly filled. If you carry a 

 few of these light loads in your 

 pocket you can slip one into the gun 

 and be prepared for the smallest bird 

 with little loss of time, and you also 



