52 



THE OOLOGIST 



Tfte ©^fogist, 



SEPTEMBER, 1880. 



OOLOGICAL AMBITION. 



TN the lamentable days of struus-up birds' 

 eggs, when the youth of the land were 

 bent on seeing who could make the largest 

 holes in their specimens without breaking 

 them, and stringing them up in their par- 

 lors as evidences and mementoes of their 

 search in the woods and fields, we do not 

 read of much advance made in oological 

 science. The ambition of the gatherers 

 of these rude and barbarous specimens 

 was not to ascertain whether a Humming 

 Bird might ever lay three eggs, or a 

 Chickadee but four. Their energies were 

 exerted in endeavoring to rival their com- 

 petitor collectors in obtaining the largest 

 string and the prettiest specimens ; too 

 frequently without reference to genuine 

 quality. This state of affairs gave birth 

 to a great many would-be oologists, but 

 could-only-be collectors, who knew and 

 cared little about the birds whose eggs 

 they were puncturing. A book now aud 

 then appeared, notably from the foreign 

 press, giving descriptions of the nests and 

 eggs of the best known birds, and latterly 

 treatises on their preparation came out. 

 But still the old method held the suprema- 

 cy. The process of culling the childish 

 notions and usages from the instructive 

 ones was a long and tedious one, requiring 

 an entire oological decade to bring about 

 at all encouragingly. Young collectors 

 were the strongest in point of numbers, 

 and familiarity with each other's methods 



induced a sort of hereditary habit among 

 them, which at the outlook threatened to 

 become obstinate. This was the habit of 

 letting the birds severely alone, for they, 

 you know, wouldn't make a collection of 

 eggs^i and it was indeed too much trouble 

 to be continually looking around after the 

 birds ; it was absurd to think that you must 

 chase the parents all over creation, and 

 then stand a chance of losing track of 

 them entirely, when you had the pretty 

 little eggs waiting ready to be puuched in 

 both ends and strung upon a straw ! Tliese 

 notions tenaciously defied a reconstruction 

 of the old system of collecting specimens, 

 while the science of gathering sound infor- 

 mation was only known to aud practiced 

 by a few, notably men of science and stu- 

 dents of ornithology. 



" Oology is still a very young science 

 in America," and its advocates were oblig- 

 ed to battle against heavy odds to place it 

 even where it is at present. Somehow or 

 other it has been more difficult to impress 

 upon the average collector's mind the real 

 advantage of making oology a study, and 

 going into it as one would into biology, 

 geology or botany. This may be, and we 

 think is, to a great extent, owing to its 

 negligence among natural history taught 

 in schools and the colleges. Hence, 

 where ornithology receives its proportion 

 of attention, oology is not thorougldy un- 

 derstood. Its "true inwardness" does 

 not only, not bother the collector, but no- 

 body has been before him to explain its 

 really manifold wonders and teach him 

 that the gathering of specimens alone does 

 not make the oologist, but only the collec- 

 tor. To put the argument plainly before 

 you, the collector takes his box with him 

 aud goes hunting for eggs, his whole ener- 

 gy bent upon securing as many as he can, 

 aud pretty generally he is thus far success- 

 ful. But he has gained only the substance ; 

 that " true inwardness :" the nesting habits 

 of the parents ; their demeaner when the 

 nest was discovered ; whether male or fe- 

 male was sitting ; and many other little 

 but important things, upon which often 



