102 



THE OOLOQI8T 



drawers in the bottom of this case. 

 Could we believe our eyes or was it 

 only a pleasant dream, 178 Sharp-shin- 

 ned Hawks eggs in sets, 41 Bartram- 

 ian Sandpiper, a dozen or more Mar- 

 bled Godwit, but enough, the drawers 

 are closed. 



CASE SIX. This case like all the 

 others, appeared to be crowded with 

 specimens but contained no nests. The 

 material as taken was arranged on 

 the long-since dried up mountain moss 

 which formed the base filling of all 

 the cases. It was brown and beauti- 

 ful; and sticking up therein were little 

 circles of light greenish Cariboo moss, 

 encircling each set and giving a most 

 beautiful appearance to the whole ar- 

 rangement. The specimens in this 

 case — imaginary case of dream crea- 

 tion — were mostly those of the com- 

 monest smaller birds, yet one end was 

 a veritable treasure chest. Here 

 were a set of 5 Ivory-billed Woodpeck- 

 ers, several sets of the different Arc- 

 tic three-toed Woodpeckers, and many 

 eggs of the Northern Pileated Wood- 

 pecker. The drawer under this case 

 yielded one of the most beautiful sets 

 of the Wild Turkey that we have ever 

 looked upon. 



Then with our guide we dreamed 

 our way up another pair of dusty 

 stairs into a hot, dirty, clttered-up 

 attic and here with a wave of his hand 

 he turned our attention to many boxes, 

 apparently covered with many years 

 dust accumulation, which he said con- 

 tained eggs. Of course even in our 

 dream we sought to add something to 

 our collection, and forthwith entered 

 into negotiations with our host to ac- 

 quire these specimens; and as all 

 dreams except night mares are pleas- 

 ant ones, of course we succeeded, and 

 proceeded to pack up what we had se- 

 cured, the entire lot. The dream guide 

 brought down the dusty and musty 

 eggs from the attic. We opened the 



boxes and cases and packed feverish- 

 ly, because one must pack rapidly if 

 they are to pack 4000 eggs in one 

 dream. Some of them are numbered 

 according to the list of Prince Nea- 

 poleon, published in 18..., others ac- 

 cording to the list of Thomas M. 

 Brewer, published in 18.... Some ac- 

 cording to the Coues list of 18..., 

 others according to lists of the Robert 

 Ridgeway, and many of them yet with 

 the numbers of 1886 A. O. U. list. 

 Many of the record cards and datas 

 appeared to be signed by people we 

 have never known of. And many of 

 them were accompanied by slips in 

 the handwriting of some of the best 

 known Oologists and Ornithologists 

 who studied here between 1840 and 

 1880. Many of them were accom- 

 panied by the original Smithsonian 

 data issued with specimens taken by 

 the R. R. MacFarland, Anderson 

 River Arctic expedition. And many of 

 them were marked with the Smithson- 

 ian numerical accession number. 

 Many of them had no data, and many 

 of them carried the data written on 

 the egg. Many were cracked and 

 many were broken, many were so 

 dirty and covered with dust that even 

 a white egg was as brown as the 

 street, and many were as beautifully 

 and carefully prepared as any of the 

 present day specimens. 



As we rolled and packed and packed 

 and rolled with cotton and dreams and 

 dust and hurry; we lift the lid of a 

 cigar box half full of what appears 

 to be grayish brown colored eggs. 

 Picking one of them up and blowing 

 the dust off of it; Lo and Behold an 

 oval white, glossy egg, more elong- 

 ated and not as large as the tame 

 pigeon, bearing in faded lavender ink 

 the mystic number of "448." Look 

 this number up in the old list and see 

 what we dreamed we found. A half 

 a cigar box full of eggs of the extinct 

 Ectopistes Migratorius! 



