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THE OOLOQIST 



he installed at his Floral Park estab- 

 lishment and operated until about a 

 year ago, although he had previously 

 disposed of his magazine. 



When Floral Park became a village, 

 Mr. Childs served as its first presi- 

 dent for three years. He took great 

 interest in village affairs, and through 

 his efforts it has become a place of 

 considerable importance. Much of 

 the property, however, eventually 

 went into real estate operations, and 

 part of it passed into Greater New 

 York c.t the time that city was ex- 

 tended. He had anticipated this 

 eventuality, and had purchased about 

 SOO hundreds acres of splendid land 

 at what he named Flowerfield, be- 

 tween Stony Brook and St. James, in 

 Suffolk county. Long Island, where 

 all field-grown stock is now produced, 

 both horticultural and agricultural, in- 

 cluding vast plantings of gladioli, 

 cannas and dahlias, under the super- 

 vision of Isaac S. Hendrickson, the 

 wholesale manager. While the stock 

 was grown at Floral Park, the first 

 commercial plantings of Gladiolus 

 America were made, and this variety 

 disseminated 



Mr. Childs took considerably inter- 

 est in politics and was a member of 

 the New York State Senate in 1894-5. 

 He was twice defeated for Congress 

 on the Republican ticket. In educa- 

 tional circles he was quite prominent, 

 fcr many years being president of the 

 board of control of the State Normal 

 and Training School, at Jamaica, New 

 York city, and for twenty years presi- 

 dent of the board of education of 

 Floral Park. At the time of his 

 death he was a member of the ad- 

 visory board of the Orphan Asylum 

 Society of Brooklyn. 



THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE 

 STUDY OF BIRDS' EGGS 

 By J. Warren Jacobs 

 In the title of this article is the 

 answer to many declarations express- 

 ing the thoughts of persons of varied 



tastes and conceptions of what con- 

 stitutes the worth of human exist- 

 ence upon the earth, more especially, 

 as it touches upon a criticism of the 

 work of the oologist. These decla- 

 rations, or expressions of thought, are 

 quoted verbatim, or as near as pos- 

 sible, the exact words as they were 

 delivered by persons in a' discussion 

 of my oological studies, or the collec- 

 tion of eggs as a result of that study. 

 True, similar exclamations came 

 from persons in many walks of life, 

 but the cases here cited are only 

 examples of viewpoints of different in- 

 dividuals. It is also true that other 

 persons, of more or less selfish or un- 

 selfish tastes, grasp the meaning of 

 the work of the oologist and its neces- 

 sity, and show appreciation and un- 

 derstanding from an unbiased stand- 

 point. From the broad-minded, un- 

 selfish individual does the oologist 

 hear words of intelligent appreciation, 

 bringing to his own heart an inspir- 

 ing desire to do more and better 

 work in his chosen branch of orni- 

 thological science. 



But it is the adverse criticism with 

 which I am dealing, and one element 

 specializing in ornithology, I feel con- 

 strained to mention first, because it 

 would seem that the last to criticise 

 the scientific oologist should be the 

 collector of material for determining 

 species. Luckily, this element, among 

 scientific ornithologists, is small, and 

 therefore, these remarks are given 

 with due respect to this fact. 



"There is nothing in eggs!" This 

 expression came from a man, pro- 

 fessionally connected as Curator of 

 Ornithology in one of the great scien- 

 tific institutions of the country, and 

 he added: "We are devoting our en- 

 tire time to investigating the birds 

 themselves." But that man is striv- 

 ing to secure series of birds' skins 

 numbering hundreds of a single 

 species. He has reached out and 

 gathered in stacks of such material, 

 and pored over the tabulations and 



