THE OOLOGIST. 



of being able to say they had so many 

 different vai'ieties, than to the study of 

 the habits and peculiarities of the birds 

 themselves. The persons who follow 

 this plan are not naturalists; they are 

 simply collectors, and collectors of the 

 worst sort. There are naturalists to 

 my knowledge who have only a col- 

 lection of some thirty or forty species 

 of eggs, but their knowledge of the 

 birds themselves and their habits is 

 something evei'y naturalist with a col- 

 lection of hundi'eds of kinds cannot 

 boast. 



I think that the idea of collecting 

 more eggs than is wanted in one's own 

 collection has gained too much ground 

 with our naturalists. It is not the 

 student of nature who does this sort of 

 thing; it is simply, as you might say, 

 the pot-hunter. And truly the pot- 

 hunter is the more noble of the two (if 

 such term is applicable to either), as 

 the birds have a slight chance (and 

 very slight too)fnr their lives with the 

 pot-hunter, while the rapacious egg- 

 hunter carries off the eggs by the 

 hundred without a thought as to the 

 immense number of birds he is really 

 desti'oying. 



It seems to me that some steps 

 should be taken to stop this willful and 

 cruel slaughter. The gaining of a few 

 palti'y dollars at the expense of the 

 lives of hundreds of the beautiful in- 

 habitants of the air seems to me rather 

 a poor exchange. Did any one ever 

 hear of an Audubon or a Wilson com- 

 mitting such an act? No, never! 

 They would have considered them- 

 selves forever disgraced and totally un- 

 worthy to occupy the high place which 

 they do among American ornitholo- 

 gists. 



I think we should all depend upon 

 ourselves for the specimens in our col- 

 lection; not upon the efforts of others. 

 Then there would be less incorrect 

 identification. The number of eggs in 

 the average collection which are wrong- 



ly identified are usually about as large 

 as those which are properly named. 



If all collectors could and would read 

 the life of Audubon and would try to 

 imitate him more closely we would 

 have a far better class of naturalists 

 in every respect, in our little ornitho- 

 logical world. 



Anyone who visited the World's Fair 

 will have seen that Ornithology is a 

 science and not a mere pastime alone, 

 as too many seem to regard it. The 

 exhibits of this branch of science in the 

 Anthropological Building were truly 

 wonderful, and did a gi'cat deal to 

 show what can be done in this line by 

 carefial study and perseverance. 



I wish to say just a word against 

 the chief tyrant of our feathered vis- 

 itors — the English Sparrow. It seems 

 to me that every effort should be made 

 to influence the legislature to pass a 

 law offering a bounty for their death. 

 This would quickly thin out their num- 

 bers and give us back the birds that 

 used to be in abundance about our 

 doors before the advent of this stran- 

 ger. If all the readers of the Oologist 

 would do what they could toward driv- 

 ing this bird out, we would soon be 

 •able to see a noticeable increase in the 

 number of our own native birds. 



I hope that this little article will put 

 the matter in the right light with at 

 least a few collectors, and that there 

 will be more observation of the habits, 

 and a little less collection in quantities 

 of the eggs, of our birds. 



LRED W. PaRKHDKST, 



Bath, N. Y. 



Nesting of Leconte's Sparrow- 



Leconte's Span-ows are fairly numer- 

 ous in the vicinity of Reaburn, Mani- 

 toba. Their peculiar note can be heard 

 both day and night in fine weather, the 

 only sound I can compare it to is the 

 note of the grasshopper. 



