THE OOLOQI8T 



175 



circulating above ttie tr«« taps _afld 

 when I got to tlie place where I had 

 seen the bird I at once discovered a 

 nest about forty feet up in a red oak 

 tree. I now took my bird glasses from 

 my belt and looking at the nest I could 

 see some feathers on the outside of the 

 nest, I put on my climbers and 

 fastened my egg box and folding hand 

 camera to my belt and began to climb 

 the tree. 



On reaching the nest I found four 

 white eggs variously blotched and 

 spotted with different shades of brown. 

 The nest was made of sticks lined with 

 fine rootlets, grass, etc. I now climbed 

 about three feet above the nest and 

 took a picture of the nest and the eggs. 

 I now took the eggo, one at a time, 

 rolled them in cotton and put them in 

 my collecting box, and when I got to 

 the bottom of the tree I also took a 

 picture of the tree which contained 

 the nest. 



I was glad to get llils set of eggs for 

 Red Tailed Hawks are somewhat rare 

 ^n this locality. — C. F. Pahrman. 



EGG COLLECTING 



Dr. William Rounds 

 Among the many interesting articles 

 in the October number of the Oologist 

 your review of Vol. 2, 1-2, 1021 Journal 

 of the Museum of Comparative Oology 

 has furnished me food for thought. 

 S'nce I have not seeu the Jcurnal and. 

 therefore, cannot be accused ol' 

 plagiarism am venturing an individual 

 c^'nlcn upon that branch of Ornithol- 

 ogy in which W3 are most interested. 

 Prof. Clifton F. Hodge in his book 

 Nature Study and Life mentions inter- 

 est in flowers as falling along three 

 lines: First, a fondness for the 

 exctic products of the conservatory to 

 be worn for a few hours at theatre o" 

 ball and then cast aside. An attach- 

 ment as fleeting as the bloom_ 



Second: The interest of the botanist 



, who desires to be able to classify 

 more species than his colleagues. 

 Laudable in itself this ambition is 

 only dangerous as it tends toward 

 egotism. 



Third: The love of -the gardener 

 for the plants of his culture and tend- 

 ing. A love which is almost parental 

 in its watchful solicitude. 



We may easily find oological types 

 that conform to each of these three 

 classes. 



First: The careless collector to 

 whom egg-taking is the result of an 

 evanescent fad; whose identification 

 are faulty, whose data blanks are in- 

 complete and to whom a note book is 

 unknown. So far as possible he 

 should be shown the error of his ways. 

 That he is taxing wild bird life with- 

 out adequate return in the form of ac- 

 quired knowledge and that his un- 

 identified specimens are as valueless 

 as a string of party-colored beads . In 

 this connection, and because many of 

 these collectors are immature boys, I 

 believe that bird protection organiza- 

 tion issuing descriptive leaflets in 

 color should include color reproduc- 

 tions of the egg (natural size where 

 practicable or, if reduced, show frac- 

 tional reduction). That this may be ac- 

 complished is shown by color illustra- 

 tions of eggs of North American Div- 

 ing birds, U. S. National Museum Bul- 

 letin 107. Am making above sugges- 

 tions because of the tendency of edu- 

 cational leaflets to omit or slight refer- 

 ence to nesting habits or egg descrip- 

 tions. Presumably this oversight is 

 due to the thought that illegal and 

 careless collecting can best be inhibit- 

 ed by secrecy. But the American boy, 

 out-of-doors, is challenged by mystery 

 and, if robust and red blooded, is a 

 constant investigator of the unknown. 

 We will do more toward bird protec- 

 tion by taking him into cur full con- 

 fidence. 



The second type of flower devoteeg 



